Baudelaire In Braille Part 1 - Love, The Hardest Way
by Phenobarbital
Summary: It was an engagement ring, that was for sure, but that didn't mean it was for Will, right? But he knew it probably –definately- maybe –obviously- was. How else could one interpret a ring found hidden in the house of a long term couple? "Oh God…"
1. Love's the Devil Counting Teardrops

Disclaimer: I do not own any Hannibal media  
Story inspired by the band HIM.

-This is my version of a Hannibal/Will love story. I attempted something lighthearted but my writing tends to lean toward dark themes and angst.  
-For now I think this will be two parts, but I'll have to see. The second part is already on a darker track as it is. So I'll see where that goes.  
-Also, I mapped out a timeline as much as I could since the series doesn't really give many cues. See end notes for the timeline.

* * *

"Life has but one true charm: the charm of the game. But what if we're indifferent to whether we win or lose?"  
― Charles Baudelaire

* * *

 _Tuesday – 13 Sep 2022 – 2.57 PM_

* * *

It was the middle of the afternoon when Will pulled up into the paved driveway of the house he shared with Hannibal, slowing the car down as he waited for the garage door to roll up and the electric gate to slide closed behind him. He parked his white Jag XJL inside of the double garage on the left side, next to where Hannibal always parked his black Bentley Continental, which presently was not there because Hannibal was still at work.

Will killed the engine and popped the clip on his seatbelt before he grabbed the grocery packet off the passenger seat, wearing a smirk on his face all the while. When he stepped out of the air conditioned car into the direct sun of the cloudless blue sky of Alicante, Spain, the hot summer wind washed over him and he felt his skin prickle with sweat.

He was mostly used to it though since he'd been living in Spain with Hannibal for almost three years so far. He shut the car door and absently armed the alarm, a habit he'd never quite kicked despite the likelihood of anyone trying to steal his car being almost nonexistent where he currently lived. And Hannibal did it too after having lived in the city for so many years, so it wasn't just Will's compulsion.

He walked out of the garage and flipped his car keys over in his hand so he could close the garage with the small black remote and as the door rolled shut quietly, he walked across the driveway to the staircase that led up to the house.

Will pushed his sunglasses up into his wind–wild curls, balancing them on the top of his head as he glanced up ahead of himself with squinting eyes, wondering where his two dogs were because surely they'd heard the car pull up, they always usually did and would come running. He found them though, when he crested the stairs and walked through the front yard area which was lined with a glass banister all the way around.

The house faced the sea with a view of ocean for miles, and the large balcony level front also overlooked the long winding road that led up to the hillside houses.

The dogs woke up from where they'd been asleep on the outside furniture when they spotted him and they came running to him with wagging tails, their paws scraping and tapping on the tiles.

"Hey, guys." He smiled at them, leaning down to pet them as he walked and they followed him around the pool side to the front door. The larger dog of the two –Heller, a black lab retriever- was sniffing at the packet Will carried while the smaller dog –Remy, a mixed breed ash blonde terrier with long hair and pointy ears- was trotting double time and panting loudly, keeping up excitedly.

Will shifted the keys in his hand again, fingering through them until he had the right one when he reached the front door and he unlocked it, pushing the door open and leaving it that way as he walked inside.

Heller and Remy followed him in, they were well trained and avoided all of the expensive furniture that their hair would cling to or their clumsiness might endanger. Hannibal had bestowed upon them luxury dog beds and toys and other special pet things so that they wouldn't want for anything, and they were always spoiled, just as long as they never touched his imported Italian furniture and _never_ entered his and Will's bedroom.

Will walked through the sun filled foyer and passed the main living room, and with the house being so completely silent his boots shoes sounded squeaky and then heavier as the flooring changed from tiles to hardwood. He made his way through to the modern, white and silver and fully fitted kitchen, placing his grocery packet down on the island counter before retrieving a box of dog biscuits from the cupboard designated for the dog foods and such. Will tossed the pair of dogs a few biscuits each, smiling as they jumped and caught them in mid-air, their jaws snapping and tails wagging so happily it was affecting their balance.

"Good boys…" he praised with a grin, crouching down and giving them his full attention for several minutes, petting them and talking to them. They'd obviously missed him…and they probably missed Hannibal too, because even though the man only spared them minimal attention, they'd react the same when he arrived home. As it were, they weren't allowed inside the house when Will and Hannibal were out at the same time, so they had outside kennels too, but they were spoiled and much preferred to sleep inside, which they did every night.

When they seemed satisfied by his fussing and were getting bored with him, Will stood up and glanced over his black T-shirt and blue denim jeans, doing a cursory brush down with his hands before turning back to the counter and opening his grocery packet. He brought out a can of Coca Cola and a Snickers bar first, and he held the soda can for moment, realizing it had gotten warm really quick.

Will considered his options.

He was really jonesing for the sugar saturated drink since he had it so rarely, soda and candy of any kind was all but verbally forbidden from the house and he only occasionally went against Hannibal's admirable, but horribly strict dietary rules. This was one of those times, but Will really didn't want to drink warm Coke and he wasn't a fan of putting ice into soda. The problem lied in the fact that if he put it in the fridge and gave it thirty minutes to get cold, then he'd have to wait to eat his chocolate bar with it and inevitably he'd have less time to savor the tastes before he'd have to wash it away with Listerine, because Hannibal's last patient on a Tuesday was three PM and it was presently –he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and checked – almost fifteen minutes after.

So with approximately 45 minutes left of his current session and the ten to fifteen minute drive home...

Will leaned against the island counter, taking his sunglasses off his head and putting them on the crisp white marble surface as he mentally worked out the times. It would mean less time for savoring but in the end he decided he'd rather have actually enjoyed having it in the first place, so he scooped the can up off the counter top and walked over to the built in reflective white double fridge, where he placed the can unobtrusively in a spot next to Hannibal's row of chilled Pilsner glasses in the door.

He absently slid his tongue over his lips as he closed the fridge, turning around to consider the Snickers bar and what he should do about eating it or not eating it. He had more in the packet, along with a small collection of other cheap candy, MnM's, Reece's, Mars bars, Razzles and pocket size packs of Oreos. His stash had recently depleted and he'd taken the first chance he'd gotten to secretly replenish it.

Because Hannibal despised candy, and while Will knew that if he _really_ wanted to he could just outright eat the stuff he wanted, he knew it would bother Hannibal, who took so much care of Will's health, so Will was considerate enough to hide it. The restrictions also kept him in line though, so he didn't binge, he'd have something every few days or once a week instead of just living on the quick sugars.

He felt like he was pretty sneaky about it, but there was also a part of Will that suspected Hannibal _knew_ that he snacked on candy in secret, and that either the older man was letting Will get away with it, or he just hadn't figured out where Will hid his stash yet.

And that was really the best thing about it, that Hannibal had _no idea_ where Will hid the candy.

Deciding to indulge just one time, with a grin Will snatched up the Snickers bar he was supposed to eat with his Coke and he tore open the wrapper, taking a bite out of it heartily as he reached into the packet to retrieve a second chocolate bar, which he slipped into his back pocket for later with the Coke.

As he left the kitchen carrying his packet of goodies, heading in the direction of staircase that led down to the wine cellar, Will was vaguely aware that Heller and Remy had run back outside to play or sleep or whatever.

He was chewing on his second bite of the chocolate as he descended the stairs and opened the door to the cellar, switching on the light and illuminating the room which was walled with modern wine racks in a black wood finish, designed so that the wine could be stacked in piles, packed vertically and diagonally or so that each bottle of wine had an individual keep. Will walked through the L-shaped cellar, right to the end where he placed his packet on the white marble shelving, just below the individual bottle keeps, because that was where the collection of –overpriced- wine that Hannibal considered special occasion bottles were kept. And those bottles were very, very rarely likely to be opened.

Seriously, the last time they'd opened a bottle of super-super extra expensive wine had been after they'd eaten –with and of- Bedelia about three years ago and Will figured the next bottle would only be opened once they'd found and had the most prime cuts of Alana marinating.

And because they were such a special collection of wines almost never used, it meant Hannibal almost never even came around the corner to the back of the cellar because those bottles of wine held no interest for him on any normal day, which all round, made the racks they were packed in very ideal hiding places.

Of the back wall rack, only twelve bottles of the wine were part of Hannibal's elite collection, which suited Will's purposes just perfectly. He opened the packet and took out two packs of MnM's before he reached for the first bottle of wine. He'd long ago worked out a system, so that specific candy went behind a specific bottle of wine, into the convenient extra gap of space in back of each wine keep.

"Domaine Leroy Chambertin Grand Cru," Will mumbled to himself in his best French accent as he stuck his candy holding hand into the wine space and placed the MnM's right in the back, "MnM's." he designated before carefully sliding the bottle back exactly as far as Hannibal preferred it.

"Domaine Leflaive Montrachet Grand Cru," he continued quietly to himself, taking out the bottle and sliding in the two packs of Razzles. He went on to do the same for the other candies, the Reece's bars went in behind two different bottles of $3000 wine, followed by three Mars bars behind another two bottles, both German wines, $8000 and $2500 respectively, and Will rolled his eyes at least once every time he hid his candy behind the extravagant wines. Will packed his Oreos in behind four different bottles of French wine, one of which was a bottle of Le Pin, Pomerol, a wine choice that Hannibal had taken from Bedelia's collection. He'd told Will it was an excellent wine that evening while Will had been neatly packing her choice, plastic sealed organs into the cooler box they'd brought with them for that specific reason.

Will took out the last of his stash from the packet, the other three Snickers bars, and after taking another bite of the one he'd left on the counter in between candy packing, it occurred to him that he'd never asked what Hannibal had done with her body.

It had been approximately three years and one month since the day they'd killed Bedelia. It had been done after their dinner with her, at which time Hannibal had subsequently removed the organs of hers that he'd always prized, and it had been done only after the drugs and anesthetic had worn off…because Will had _insisted._ Following that and Will being awarded the pleasure of ending her life –because somehow she'd still been alive-, Hannibal had told Will to go ahead and leave, said he'd meet up with him at their motel room just outside of Baltimore when he was done disposing of her. Even in their early days as fellow serial killers, Will had no longer ever really bothered to question Hannibal and that night hadn't been any exception, he'd taken the cooler box, the wine and their cheaply purchased second hand car, and he'd left.

Hannibal had shown up a few hours later as he'd said he would, his plastic suit had been neatly packed into a bag he'd been carrying, his clothing barely creased and his head without a single hair out of place.

A further hour later, they'd already been on their way out of Baltimore and Will hadn't thought to ask.

' _Maybe I'll ask him about it at dinner.'_ He thought, curious about it since while TattleCrime had reported Bedelia missing, the official police statement was that she was dead, despite there being no body found.

Will was currently in the process of putting his Snickers bars away, and it was after placing two of them in one slot, behind the eleventh bottle, that he realized there was a new bottle of wine in the rack, which meant Hannibal must have purchased it in the last month since that was the last time Will had been down there hiding candy. He raised his eyebrows and then slowly frowned as he considered whether his candy stash would still be safe. He figured it would though, since not only did the smell of wood and wine mask the scent of processed sugar from Hannibal's sensitive nose, but also the fact that the thirteenth bottle was the first new edition in a long time.

Will felt reassured enough that Hannibal wouldn't be taking stock of his –too- pricey wines again any time soon by that reasoning, so he continued with what he was doing, placing the final chocolate bar in behind the twelfth bottle of wine. When he was done he finished the chocolate he was eating and then squashed the wrapper into his palm, and as he was sucking nuts and caramel from his teeth he decided to find out what the new bottle of wine was.

Will stuffed the chocolate wrapper into his back pocket beside the uneaten Snickers and then he reached for the new bottle of wine, sliding it out of its keep carefully and turning it over with both hands so it was facing him on the label side.

"Romanée-Conti." He read the white label, raising an eyebrow, clueless of its price.

He'd have to research it like he'd researched all the others, usually when he was bored on the days he didn't work. He only taught English classes three days a week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, for an hour at the local college, so he had a fair amount of free time on his hands.

Will turned the bottle over again, finding it generally unremarkable since he wasn't a wine enthusiast, always having been more of a whiskey kind of guy. He had to concede though, that when Hannibal paired specific wines with specific dishes, it was always amazing.

He went to place the bottle back, absently glancing into the rack when he did so…and that's how he noticed that there was something in the back of it, in the space behind where the bottle Will was holding had been, not unlike his candy, something was hidden there.

Will's first reaction was anxiety.

Hannibal hadn't hidden anything from Will since before they went barreling into the Atlantic, so finding something he was obviously not meant to have found instantly made him feel nauseous, worried and angry. Ignoring the glaring double standard he was holding Hannibal to, Will placed the bottle of wine on the marble shelf and reached into the rack, his fingers grasping at the smooth, small, square….box.

Will blinked and blinked again as he brought the small box out to where he could see it…and then he just stared at it, there, in his hand. It was a reflective dark cherry wood box….a reflective…dark cherry wood… **ring** …box.

Will swallowed tensely, his throat clicking loudly in the quiet cellar and hurting slightly from the strain of it as he held the box in his hand and tried to understand what he was seeing and whether he was taking what he was seeing the right way.

But then, how many ways could one interpret a ring box found hidden behind a new bottle of expensive wine in the house of a long term couple?

Will took a deep breath as he brought his other hand up to open the lid of the box.

It opened soundlessly, revealing an interior made of crisp white leather –because even the box had to be expensive where Hannibal was concerned- and of course, there in the slot was a ring.

An engagement ring…?

Will stared at it and his heart was beating a mile a minute, his face suddenly very hot.

The band was silver-white and relatively thick with a long even row of diamonds in a narrow crevasse going all the way around the circumference of the ring on one side and another larger single diamond was on the flat side of the band, in the center. It was simple and plain enough while still being a stunning ring, and although Will wasn't particularly fond of jewelry in general, he could tell when something looked good…and was really expensive.

Expensive…everything with Hannibal was exorbitantly priced. Honestly.

But regardless of his mental price griping, Will carefully removed the ring from the slot –even though he shouldn't have-, and set the fancy box down before taking a moment to look closer at the fine piece of jewelry. He observed the small brilliant cut diamonds closely and stopped breathing for a few seconds when he counted forty two of them, and then he noted that it was much heavier than his former gold band he'd had when he'd been married to Molly, while being only slightly thicker. The diamonds didn't account for that much weight, so that meant the ring wasn't silver –duh- or even white gold, and was probably platinum…

…and of course it was.

Will noticed there was an engraving on the smooth inside and he turned the ring at a better angle between his fingers to read the inscription,

 _"_ Amžinai. _"_ he mumbled, sounding out the unfamiliar word with no clue as to what it meant or even what language it was in. He exhaled loudly then and held the ring between the fingers of his right hand as he ran his other hand over his mouth and then rubbed at the side of his neck, thinking and overthinking.

It was an engagement ring, that was for sure, but that didn't mean it was for Will, right?

But he knew it probably –definately- maybe –obviously- was.

He swallowed again, tenser, thinking of what it would mean for Hannibal to ask to marry him and he found himself frowning, because even though he was surprisingly –though not really surprisingly- feeling giddy about the idea, he also didn't like the fact that it meant he'd become Mister Ethan Kask, taking Hannibal's fake Estonian last name.

He would no longer be Ethan Gerard, romantic male partner of Hannes Kask, they'd be Doctor and Mister Kask, husbands.

Not Doctor and Mister Lecter.

And that bothered Will. He hadn't known it would or could have until he was looking at an engagement ring that presented to him the scenario of marrying Hannibal...or Hannes, rather.

He had mixed feelings on the technicalities of what their lawfully wedded names would be, but that didn't stop him from sliding the ring onto the appropriate finger, nor did it stop his breath from catching and his sentimental emotions from peaking, when he realised that it fit him _perfectly_.

And it looked so right..and felt so right.

Will moved his fingers, he made a loose fist and then stretched his fingers apart, looking at the prinstinly polished ring from all angles on his hand and _loving_ it.

"Oh God…" he breathed out, heart still hammering in his chest, breath still short, butterflies running rampant in his stomach, "…oh…God…" it was sinking in, that Hannibal was, at some point, going to ask Will to marry him.

And even though it'd been an idea said in jest years ago, because of Freddy Lounds' whole _Murder Husbands_ catch phrase for them, being faced now with the actuality that Hannibal wanted to marry him made Will both impossibly happy and impossibly nervous. It didn't matter that he'd been living with, sleeping with and in love with Hannibal for years, he was still nervous as fuck just thinking about engagement and marriage and _how_ and _when_ and _where_.

He took in a deeper breath and ran his right hand through his hair, bring his left close to lips in a loose fist and brushing his lips over the surface of the ring…and Jesus Christ, he was already comfortable with it, he knew he would get used to it really quickly. He knew he would gladly take the name of Kask so long as he knew he'd personally made marriage vows to Hannib-

His phone buzzed in his pocket and he nearly leapt out if his skin when his ringtone went off loudly inside the quiet cellar. Will started panicking slightly, not only because he'd discovered his secret engagement ring but because he'd been down in the cellar a good while longer than he should have and –he panicked a little more because- Hannibal was calling him, he knew because he'd set a specific ringtone for the older man.

Will ignored the call and quickly slipped the ring off his finger, placing it neatly back in its shiny box and wiping off any fingerprints he'd left on it with his T shirt before he placed it back in the rack and the wine bottle after it.

By that point his phone had stopped ringing and Will quickly grabbed his empty grocery packet, glanced around to make sure all was in order and then hurried to go back upstairs.

But he back tracked at the door and quickly scanned the racks nearest to him, looking for a bottle of something he liked and could use to convince Hannibal to cook around so the older man wouldn't venture down to the cellar, for that night at least. Will settled on a bottle of Château Margaux, a red wine that Will favored.

He called it smooth and easy to drink, Hannibal called it complex and elegant with a beautiful length on the finish. So it was whatever, it tasted good.

He took the bottle, switched the light off and shut the door before he skipped the stairs a few at a time. Will made it back to the kitchen in thirty seconds and placed the bottle on the counter as he pulled his phone out of his pocket.

He swiped his finger across the screen to unlock it and then tapped into his missed calls, seeing Hannibal's name seconds before a text message came through. He brought his notifications down with his thumb and tapped into the text from Hannibal. It read:

 **-I'll be a bit late, probably around six. Social call.**

Will sighed in relief and then frowned slightly, wondering who the social call was with. He was aware that Hannibal's colleagues were fond of him, because everyone tended to find Hannibal –or Hannes these days- charming and likeable, but Hannibal didn't often _socialize_ with any of them. Will understood though, that since Hannibal's new place of work was not private, not wanting to draw attention to himself because Will liked it in Alicante, he'd chosen to work in a building with other high end medical practitioners. There was everything from a GP and Gynecologist to a couple's therapist and a cosmetic surgeon who had offices in the building where Hannibal had set up shop on the top floor.

Also, he was no longer a clinical or forensic psychiatrist, again trying to stay off anyone's radar, he'd become an adolescent psychiatrist, which Will had been intensely bothered by for a while.

But Hannibal had reassured –promised- him he wouldn't be creating any child murderers, and Will had chosen to believe him. True enough, no teenagers had gone on a killing spree in the time they'd lived there.

But back to the point, Hannibal working in a building with other people who he saw on a fairly regular basis – _'because insinuating ourselves into people's everyday lives will create a subconscious feeling of trust, after all, no one ever really believes the person working in the office next to them might be an internationally hunted serial killer'_ – meant these people came to consider themselves friendly acquaintances and would inevitably lead to wanting to share drinks and dinners, not alike but not unlike the ones Hannibal had used to host in Baltimore.

As it was, Will had only formally met two of Hannibal's new colleagues and acquaintances since they'd been living and working in Alicante, a husband and wife who had come over for dinner a few times and had actually become _friends_ –if Will could call it that- with himself and Hannibal. Other times he and Hannibal had run into people in passing while out buying groceries or taking the dogs down to the beach. Will had felt awkward inwardly whenever he'd met someone Hannibal knew from work for the first time, but all of the people had already known that he was Hannibal's romantic partner prior to meeting him and most of them had been sincerely unbothered by it. Will remembered only one person, a guy who was a marriage counselor, who had seemed uncomfortable about talking to them in public when they'd run into him while being out.

Hannibal had later stated that the man was probably homophobic and Will had agreed, both of them had been quite amused.

Will took his can of Coke out of the fridge as he thought about the first time Hannibal had invited the husband and wife over for dinner a few months after they'd first moved to and settled in Alicante. Doctor Juan Cantillo, an occupational therapist who worked in the same offices as Hannibal and someone who Hannibal genuinely seemed to like, along with his wife Isa Cantillo.

Will had been completely out of his comfort zone when he'd learned of them being invited over, because up until that point, he and Hannibal's romantic relationship had mostly taken place privately, aside from being known as a couple, everything else had all just been between the two of them.

But Hannibal had been looking forward to it, and Will had been able to tell that it was because it was to be their first social dinner with people as an open couple. Hannibal had been taking it seriously too, wanting to show other people that Will was with him, that they were together.

Will had understood that it was something Hannibal had _needed_ from him, a reassurance of sorts, and so he had put him game face on, along with some designer clothes for the evening, a white, slim fit button down shirt worn with cobalt blue formal pants - because blue ' _suited his coloring'_ and black oxfords. Also, he'd combed his hair back and worn the cologne Hannibal specifically bought for him because it ' _complimented his natural scent perfectly_ '.

Hannibal's reaction hadn't been much, the man was too composed to have done more than compliment Will with a pleased smile, telling him he looked exceptionally handsome, but that in itself Will knew meant a lot.

Hannibal didn't throw sincere compliments around freely.

Meeting the Cantillo's had been fine, they were nice people, genuine too, unlike the pompous sort of people Hannibal had associated himself with in Baltimore years ago. But meeting them had never been what Will was worried about, his biggest concern had been that he hadn't known how he was supposed to physically behave around Hannibal in front of them.

On a general basis in their daily lives, Hannibal was very tactile, he was always touching Will in some way, his hands on Will's face, shoulders, neck, back, arms and hands. And when things were a little less general and more personal, his hands would be in Will's hair, on his waist, on his ass, down his pants, skin on skin…and all of those touches –general and not so general- would take place while they talked or cooked or spent time together reading, drawing, killing, cleaning, watching television. And Will was entirely receptive of the touches, he reciprocated eagerly too.

It was pretty normal as far as Will was concerned…well aside from the killing obviously.

But they'd never had to properly interact with one another as a couple around other people, so Will had been unsure of what to expect. He hadn't panicked though, he'd simply decided to take his cues from Hannibal.

It had been a bit weird to call him Hannes and in turn, it had been weird to be called Ethan, but it had been necessary and Will had been diligent not to make a stupid mistake and say the wrong name.

Will remembered that it had been easy to get along with the Cantillo's and he'd focused on that at the time, forgetting to worry about what to do around Hannibal because the older man hadn't made any moves to put his hands anywhere on Will during the apéritif, which they'd enjoyed outside on the furniture set near the pool.

It had been once they were all sitting in the open plan dining room-cum-main lounge at the table, couple across from couple, that the first casual touches of the evening had been made. Hannibal had served dinner with his usual flourish, and when he'd set Will's plate in front of him, he'd put his hand on the back of Will's neck and when he'd poured Will's wine, he'd stood and leaned closer than he had to, but that had more or less been the extent of it.

Will had admittedly been a little disappointed.

Dinner conversation had been enjoyable, the topics had all been light and pleasant and humorous, nothing metaphorical, philosophical, political or academic, just friendly and with shared commonalties they had all known of or had experienced in their lives, being shared and discussed. And once they'd finished dessert sometime later and were just sitting at the table, drinking wine and talking, Hannibal had placed his hand on Will's bare forearm –his sleeves had been rolled up- at one point and stroked the skin there for a brief moment, the action having been almost absent.

Will had been careful not to react to it, but then, when Hannibal had removed his hand, Will had felt like he should have done something in return, even if it would have been something small.

That small detail had bothered him for the remainder of the drinks they shared with the Cantillo's, even when they'd moved outside again to stand alongside the frameless glass fencing surrounding the pool area, looking out at the view and also so that Juan was able to smoke, Will had been irritated with himself but had been hiding it.

He'd watched the Cantillo's with mild annoyance as they'd behaved comfortably with one another as any couple should, not uncertain or self-conscious about where to place hands or when to place kisses on cheeks or lips, or to smile at one another with affection. And Will remembered feeling jealous of their comfort, something he'd never experienced when he'd been with women –obviously- and it had been increasingly frustrating for him.

Hannibal had seemed unbothered by it, but then, the man could be incredibly unreadable when he wanted to be.

It had been a strange feeling, Will had felt so compelled to do something to show the Cantillo's that he and Hannibal were close and comfortable, touchy feely and _happy_ , but he'd also known he couldn't have behaved indecorously. There was a line he had to stay behind, a line of dignity and propriety and etiquette, the line that all couples who were newly becoming friends with other people or couples had to be careful of not overstepping so as not to make anyone uncomfortable around them with unnecessary displays of affection.

And the Cantillo's had been walking that line perfectly, they'd obviously been used to interacting with other couples and people and Will just hadn't known how to do that himself…not as a man in a same sex relationship. So he'd stood beside Hannibal on their pool deck balcony, talking with Juan and Isa about dog breeding, since they had dogs of their own - Will had only had Remy at the time- while constantly feeling a weight of agitation in his chest that had dampened his mood.

He'd been close to resenting the Cantillo's when they'd all heard the phone ringing inside the house, his and Hannibal's landline, which was really only used for Hannibal's work purposes. Hannibal had excused himself to answer it, placing his hand on Will's elbow lightly and sliding it to his wrist before he'd walked away toward the house.

The Cantillo's had surprised him then…

* * *

 _...Will watched him walk away, staring at the tall, lean figure he cut, illuminated by the outdoor and pool lights, clad in dark pants and a dark shirt, his hair neat but not perfectly, just casually. Will couldn't help thinking; so attractive, he's handsome and elegant…he's mine, I'm his, we're-_

 _Isa interrupted his train of thought, and on her face was a redolent and knowing smile as she said to him,_

" _Estás tan enamorado…" speaking in Spanish, which, while Will had been getting better at it, he was by no means fluent yet._

" _Uh, I'm sorry, I don't…I don't understand." He responded, flexing his fingers around the bowl of his wine glass as he glanced between the wife and husband with a light frown._

 _Juan was smiling too and he exhaled smoke before he translated for Will,_

" _My wife says that she sees how in love you are." He spoke in his accented English as he had been doing all night._

 _Will raised his eyebrows and felt his face get hot as Isa kept smiling, looking as though she thought he was adorable for blushing,_

" _Yes, you look at Hannes and I see it." she pointed out in an encouraging tone and Will felt like an idiot for having stared so blatantly at Hannibal just then, "But why are you so shy, you don't want us to see?" She asked, apparently she was far more observant than Will would have given her credit for._

 _He took a breath and glanced at the pool, the house and then back to them with an awkward half smile,_

" _I…I uh…"_

" _We are all friends here, Ethan, and this is your home," Juan said with a hint of friendly seriousness, "you should be comfortable here if nowhere else, you and Hannes_ _._ _" he_ _said before he took another drag on his cigarette._

 _Will blinked and his half smile drew a bit tight,_

" _I wouldn't want to be impolite by being overly comfortable."_

 _Isa clucked her tongue, unperturbed as she shook her head and waved a hand through the air,_

" _Nonsense, do you think we would be offended to see you show affection to your man," she rolled her eyes lightly, "we are not that kind of people."_

 _Will's entire face, his neck and ears –probably his chest too-, all heated up twice as bad when she called Hannibal his 'man'._

 _Juan laughed then, a light inoffensive sound and his eyes wrinkled at the corners while smoke filtering from his mouth and nose,_

" _You've embarrassed him, Isa." he was still chuckling as he shook his head at his wife, his tall, thin frame was shaking lightly from it._

 _Will felt like he was much younger than he actually was in that moment._

 _Juan and Isa were closer to Hannibal's age than his own 41 years, he was the youngest present as it was, but with how amused they seemed at his intentional reserve around Hannibal –he hadn't known his restraint had even been that obvious- Will felt like a teenager, fumbling through his first meeting with a girlfriend's parents._

 _Hannibal was on his way back to join them by then and he'd seen the couple laughing and watching Will, he also saw Will's evident blush and he frowned with a smile once he came to a stop,_

" _Something funny that I missed?" he was standing just beside Will, just short of their shoulders touching and he was holding a fresh bottle of wine in one hand and his own refilled glass in the other._

 _Isa was still smiling but she looked apologetic as she raised her wine glass to Hannibal's offer of a refill,_

" _I'm sorry, it's my fault, I think I embarrassed him…" she said to Hannibal and then turned to Will, "…I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, Ethan."_

 _Juan had stopped drinking for the evening since he had to drive home, so he only held an ashtray –that Hannibal had supplied him with earlier- and his cigarette in either of his hands, and he smiled at Hannibal as he explained,_

" _Isa just pointed out that Ethan seems shy around us, he's making a great deal of effort to be polite with regards to your relationship and she was hoping to ease his worries."_

 _Will glanced at Hannibal when he touched the bottle neck to the rim of Will's glass to refill it and Will felt ten times worse when he saw that Hannibal wasn't smiling, in fact, he actually seemed a little put out by their observation._

 _Their guests noticed too, because Hannibal was either being intentionally transparent or he'd forgotten to school his usually unaffected veneer into place._

 _Isa sighed and frowned, looking far more apologetic after seeing Hannibal's reaction,_

" _We just don't want him to feel like he has to hide, that's all, Hannes, I hope we haven't overstepped."_

" _Are you offended, my friends?" Juan looked like he felt bad too as he stood up straighter and looked between Hannibal and Will._

 _Will started to shake his head, unsure of what exactly he was supposed to say to diffuse the weird atmosphere, but Hannibal spoke up first,_

" _No, not offended, I only hope that Ethan is not upset." Hannibal looked at him then, apologetic as well, "I tend to drag him into social situations," he looked back to their guests next, "something he is not altogether fond of and mostly only forces himself into partaking of for my sake." He sounded so damn sincere about it too._

 _Will blinked at him and then glanced at Isa and Juan who seemed to look sorrier by the second, as if they honestly hadn't meant to ruin a perfectly good evening of good food and company by making their harmless comment._

 _Because really, it had been harmless._

" _I'm not upset." Will said evenly and instantly he had everyone's attention._

 _And for the first time it occurred to him –with an abrupt fluttering in his stomach- that Hannibal must have really given these people the impression that Will mattered a whole hell of a lot to him for them to be so contrite about possibly upsetting him, and they were probably worrying that they had caused a problem. Will took a silent breath and sipped his wine as he tried to ease the butterflies assaulting his insides, and then he looked at Hannibal, "I just…hadn't realized I was being so obvious," before looking at Isa and Juan, "no offense taken, just good old fashioned…embarrassment on my part." He smiled awkwardly and sipped his wine again, looking out over the balcony to avoid everyone's eyes, regretting having worn contact lenses and not his glasses._

 _Isa huffed a bit dramatically,_

" _Well, Ethan, you don't have to be embarrassed, please, Juan and I just see two people in love and we don't want to hinder that."_

" _Yes, don't mind us, please." Juan added, stubbing his cigarette out in the ashtray with a friendly grin._

 _Will just nodded, not meeting their eyes as he glanced at them and then at Hannibal, but his own eyes betrayed him by lingering on Hannibal's lips for a noticeable second, since the older man was licking wine from them right then. Will didn't know it, but he guessed that he must have had some very specific look on his face that Hannibal was able to read, because before Will had a chance to look away, Hannibal leaned in and kissed him, once, sweetly, on the lips._

 _A dignified and polite, but still firm and lingering –and lightly moist- kiss._

 _Juan was grinning twice as much when Isa wooted gleefully and when Hannibal and Will drew apart she raised her glass. Hannibal looked at her and Will forced himself to as well, shyness be damned, and she beamed at them,_

" _Bonito!" she said jubilantly, looked thrilled about the little kiss they'd shared. "You two make such a lovely couple!"_

" _Isa, Isa…" Juan chuckled, "…stop gushing, mi querido." He said kindly to her, leaning in and kissing her forehead, smiling._

 _He and Isa were in love too, it was clear, and Juan was a really nice guy, Will could see why Hannibal liked him. Isa too, she was nice. Will really liked them._

 _And their easy demeanors_ _helped his blush, which had been refreshed tenfold by Hannibal's kiss, to recede and he smiled as well, touching his glass to Isa's just before Hannibal did likewise, Juan mimicking the action since he wasn't holding a glass._

" _To good friends and being in love." Isa toasted._

 _And Will was happy to toast to it._

* * *

The Cantillo's had come to dinner several times after that, by themselves and a few times with other guests and they'd been a huge help in Will finding his comfort zone with how to behave around other people with regards to Hannibal.

Will found himself wondering what Isa would say when she found out they were engaged. She'd probably be ecstatic.

He was smiling about it too, until he came back to reality, realizing that he and Hannibal were not even there yet, Hannibal had to _ask_ him first and he had to say _yes_ before they would be engaged.

' _Of course I'll say yes.'_ he admitted to himself and then grinned into his hand like an idiot as he ran it over his face.

Heller came running in and passed the kitchen then and Will quickly whistled at him and gave him a command not to run in the house. Heller unfortunately did run again, but at least that time it was on his way out. Will took a deep breath and followed it with a sigh, knowing he had to calm himself down before Hannibal got home, or otherwise he'd give away that he knew something, and he didn't want that. Will wanted to see how it played out, he wanted to see what would be Hannibal's idea of a marriage proposal.

He was so old fashioned and proper…but was also a cannibalistic serial killer who had once licked the blood of a victim from Will's mouth after he'd taken a bite out of the guys forearm during an unexpected struggle.

So basically, Will had no idea which version of Hannibal would propose to him.

The man or the murderer? Would it be cozy and ordinary or bloody and grotesque, premeditated or spontaneous?

It was pretty exciting not knowing.

Will pursed his lips and realized he'd finished his Coke and also his second Snickers bar in the twenty minutes he'd been standing in the kitchen thinking about that first dinner years ago. He checked his cell phone for the time, it was almost 4.30 and Hannibal had said he'd be home at around six, which gave Will plenty of time to savor his Coke and chocolate, but also more than enough time to make dinner and take a shower after.

Hannibal had said the night before that he wanted to use the last meat he had of the woman he'd killed a month earlier, so Will knew what use for dinner.

Will wasn't always along for the kill, only sometimes, but it was never spontaneous or decided on short notice when he or Hannibal, or Hannibal alone, killed anyone. Because Hannibal knew Will wanted to stay in Alicante and they had to be careful, they would plan when they would kill, and while it randomized their choice of victims quite a bit, their system worked well.

With cooking though, Will wasn't anywhere near as good at Hannibal was, obviously, but he'd picked up many things from being around Hannibal over the years, so he occasionally made dinner for them when Hannibal had to work later or when anything came up, like right then for instance.

So Will set to it, first washing his hands and drying them off before he retrieved Hannibal's impressive recipe card box from where he kept it in a drawer next to his ever-increasing rolodex of business cards. Will remembered the first time he'd seen the rolodex and asked about the business cards Hannibal kept adding to it every couple of days. Hannibal had started collecting and adding to it after they first moved to Spain and had settled in, and he'd simply told Will that it was a collection of his most unfortunate and unpleasant acquaintances.

Will had known **exactly** what that meant and so he hadn't asked any further questions. It was such a proficient system for choosing victims though. The rolodex had been just one of the many new things that Will had learned about the Chesapeake Ripper from living with him, most things were very impressive and very disturbing.

Will was flipping through the recipes, trying to find an easier one than the many far from easy ones, and absently his mind drifted back to the engagement ring, hidden downstairs in the wine cellar, just sitting there, waiting to be offered to him. He sighed and shook his head, stamping down the rise of excited emotions he felt at just thinking about it, focusing more intently on carding through the recipes until finally he settled on making a 'beef' recipe he found. It wasn't too complicated in preparation or presentation and would take a little over an hour to make.

Will moved around the kitchen with relative efficiency, he knew where everything was but still couldn't pull it all together quite as seamlessly as Hannibal did. He tied his apron on –yes, Hannibal had bought him his own apron for when they cooked together- and he began preparing the sauce first, because it would need to be refrigerated.

Once he'd whisked the necessary ingredients together and the sauce was complete, Will placed it in the fridge and then retrieved the cast-iron skillet to set it onto the grill, switching it on to heat up. He then went around the corner from the kitchen, walking along the row of floor to ceiling windows as he made his way to the pantry door, below which, just as it had been in Baltimore, was Hannibal's kill/meat prep room.

Will didn't need to go down there presently though, he just needed to access the fridge in the large pantry. He punched in the combination for the door lock and then went inside the room to the silver double door fridge in which Hannibal kept cuts of human frozen meat. Will opened the fridge and glanced over the parts all neatly cleaned, prepared, packed and vacuum sealed.

Hannibal kept the plain cut parts, organs, limbs, and etcetera, in the freezer downstairs for when he was ready to clean them up.

Will took the meat he needed and then left the pantry, closing the door and locking it behind himself before he reentered the kitchen. The sun was getting lower in the sky and the kitchen was warmly lit by it, making Will smile. He really enjoyed living there. As he opened the sealed meat and begun preparing it, brushing it down with olive oil first, he thought of how Hannibal had let him pick their house when they'd arrived in Spain, and had also given him the option of primary décor choices for it.

Will was no decorator, but he knew that he hadn't wanted to live in a gloomy place ever again, he hadn't wanted to live anywhere with dark or old wood, large brick fireplaces or shingled roofs, no walls of trees surrounding him or expansive fields out in the middle nowhere. He also hadn't wanted intimidating brick and masonry structures on drab, gray suburban streets, no imposing, macabre art on the walls and too many doors closing everything in or out.

He'd wanted sunshine and a beautiful, serene view, a nice modern house that was never in darkness, clean and contemporary and large and openly spaced…and Hannibal hadn't denied him any one of those things.

They lived on high, overlooking winding roads, hills and the ocean as far as the horizon went and the house was all white walls and large windows, excellently ventilated with fresh air and never in the shadows. Even the roof was a deck and Will could spend time sunbathing up there if he wanted to. Their furniture and interior was modern, everything in subdued colors and understated materials, soft leathers, marble, steel, glass and lyptus wood. Their appliances were all silver to match the white open plan kitchen. Their bedroom faced the sea, with views that stretched on beyond a wall of windows and a wide white balcony that over looked the pool area. Their bedroom furniture and bedding were all in whites and soft browns with a few other touches of color, and it was naturally well lit in the day and by more than sufficient ceiling lighting at night.

It was exactly what Will had wanted and he was happy there…with Hannibal.

Once he'd finished seasoning the meat, Will placed it into the freezer to set for thirty minutes, and also needing to allow the grill to heat up for a further fifteen minutes, he walked around the counter to sit at the smaller dining table set there…

…he was thinking about the ring again. He couldn't help it.

He was trying to imagine the scenario in which Hannibal would propose, wondering which room in the house it would happen in, or if maybe it would happen outside by the pool. Hannibal wouldn't propose in a public place, too much of a spectacle for them, so it was likely to happen at home. Will smirked, thinking it would more than likely happen in the kitchen, or at least after some extravagant meal Hannibal would have spent hours preparing, so that he'd get to serve the wine he'd bought with the food.

Reminded of the wine, he brought his phone out of his pocket and that was the first thing he Googled, because the spelling of it came to mind easier than the foreign language word that had been inscribed inside the ring. Will brought up the web browser on his phone and tapped into the search bar, where he typed; _Romanée_ - _Conti Grand Cru_ _wine price,_ and entered it.

It took a few clicks and skimming through wine lists to find the exact one he'd read off the label, since there were quite a few closely named, and once he found the right one, Will's eyes bulged for a second and he exhaled into his free hand,

"$13000…Jesus." he mumbled, knowing that price was probably excluding whatever the retailer who sold it had tacked onto the French wine. He shook it off, something he'd long since learned to do when it came to Hannibal spending money, money that as far as Will understood, came from some endless fucking well. Okay, well, not exactly, Hannibal had once vaguely implied that he had several _investments_ , but that was all he'd ever said about it though.

Will continued with what he was doing, thinking of the word inscribed in the ring and sounding it out aloud until he had it right before he brought up Google Translate and typed it in,

"Am-zin-ai." He said it as he spelled it, aware that there was a diacritical mark above the 'z' that he could not type out on his phone, but he figured it wouldn't make much of a difference for the translator.

True enough, the translator recognized the word and detected it as being Lithuanian. Will smiled softly, thinking it was really great that Hannibal had engraved the ring in his native language, it sort of lessened Will's frustration about the fact that he'd be legally married as Ethan to Hannes Kask, and not Will to Hannibal Lecter.

That engraving would always stand as a point about who Hannibal truly was underneath the fake identity.

Will would never have imagined he could feel so prideful about Hannibal, and yet even very early on, before he'd learned about Hannibal being the Chesapeake Ripper, before the blood and lies and murder and enemies, when Hannibal had first been Will's friend, he remembered feeling pride that someone like Hannibal had the time of day for him. He'd been so rude to Hannibal when he first met him, and then again the second time, trying to be stand-offish by default, but it hadn't lasted very long.

Neither had their friendship, mind you.

That was in the past though, they'd since been together as a couple for a little over three years already, and they'd known one another for almost nine in total. And while Will would never have believed he'd end up where he presently was in those earlier years, he couldn't imagine himself being anyway else anymore.

He'd zoned out again, sitting with his phone in his hand –the screen gone black- as he sat letting his mind drift, absently touching the underside of his ring finger with his thumb, but Heller trotting back into the kitchen and lying down at Will's feet brought him back to the present and he reached down and petted the black lab before he unlocked his phone again. Will glanced over the screen and clicked on the 'more translations' button beneath the redundant English translation.

And his heart raced instantly, his breathing increasing, his chest tightening with a flood of emotion as he read the results on the screen; forever, eternally, always, perpetually, forevermore…and so on.

They were all Lithuanian translations, which meant the engraving meant any one of those things.

Will groaned out loud, making Heller's head and ears lift, because Will realized he couldn't even _ask_ Hannibal which one it was until the man proposed, because bringing it up any time before would be a dead giveaway that he knew something, the timing would be too convenient for Will to suddenly take an interest in Lithuanian.

As if he had the time to learn it anyway, he'd only recently been able to consider himself fluent in Spanish which had taken a lot of time and effort, Will didn't really have a knack for languages.

Again, he reminded himself to stop thinking about the ring, because he had to be totally neutral and normal by the time Hannibal came home. With that in mind, Will spent the remainder of his time meant for waiting making sure his Snickers bar wrappers and the empty Coke can were so buried in the garbage bins down by the main gate that Hannibal would never find it.

Then he returned to the house and continued with the cooking.

* * *

Hannibal & Will met in 2013  
Will was imprisoned for 3 months in 2014  
Hannibal fled the States beginning of 2015  
Will recovered and went to Florence late 2015  
Hannibal hands himself in end 2015  
Hannibal is in prison for 3 years -2016-2018  
Will breaks Hannibal out beginning 2019  
They run away:  
Spend 3 months in America (hiding, tying up loose ends)  
2 months in Portugal  
Living For 2 years & 10 months in Spain


	2. A Chalkboard Symphony Played With Nails

A/N: This chapter has been censored as future chapters will be in order to adhere to FF dot nets content rules. For the uncensored version (inclusive of images) you can visit my AO3 account.

* * *

"A multitude of small delights constitute happiness."  
― Charles Baudelaire

* * *

 _Tuesday – 13 Sep 2022 – 6.05 PM_

By five past six, Will had completed the cooking, fed the dogs, taken a shower and brushed the sugar and toffee thoroughly from his mouth. He'd forced himself not to go down to the cellar to take one last look at the ring for the night, because he _needed_ to leave it alone and let it happen when it happened, and instead he spent the remaining time setting two places at the small dining table in the kitchen, because he and Hannibal only ever ate at the main table with guests.

He was barefoot, wearing a comfortable dark gray loose linen pants with a white T shirt, his dark curls were mostly dry and sort of neat after he'd haphazardly run a comb through his hair to get rid of any knots after he'd showered.

Remy and Heller were asleep in the den near the back of the house, it was a room that was pretty much designated for them since he and Hannibal never used it. The rest of the house was quiet, save for the CD Will had set to play earlier in the living room, and the classical music filtered at a nice volume and with crisp clarity throughout the house because of the open layout and high ceilings.

He was enjoying the Mendelssohn's, Violin Concerto in E minor op.64 that was currently playing, having become very familiar and rather fond of Hannibal's taste in music. Will never really cared for music when he'd been alone and so he hadn't had any particular taste himself, aside from the music he'd listened to as a teenager, which wasn't something he found himself interested in anymore.

Will had just placed two wine glasses on the island counter when he heard the front door open and close. His heart rate went up a few beats and his stomach flipped over, which was unexpected since that was something that didn't happen any other time when Hannibal came home. But Will knew it was just because he was subconsciously excited about the engagement ring and it was messing with his composure.

He took a quick, deep breath and stepped from the counter to the fridge, opening it and retrieving the wine he'd put in there earlier. He could hear Hannibal's leather oxfords on the wooden floors and as he shut the fridge and turned around, Hannibal had just walked into the kitchen. He was dressed in beige and black, a formal pants and fine cotton button down shirt that was rolled up at the sleeves and undone at the collar. He'd been wearing the beige suit jacket when he'd left that morning and Will assumed it was probably hung in the foyer closet because Hannibal was sans the jacket.

His mouth curved into an affectionate smile the moment he saw Will,

"Evening, Will." And while he'd never kicked the habit of addressing Will with formal words, because that was just his way of speaking, there were nuances in his expression and in his timber that had over time become warmer and smoother and softer, so even as he said it that way, Will recognized tender sentiment in it.

He'd changed Hannibal just as much as Hannibal had changed him in the end.

"Hey." Will greeted with equal warmth in his voice and a lover's smile, he had long since lost interest in formalities.

He'd stopped being formal with Hannibal not long before he and Hannibal had kissed for the first time.

* * *

They'd been sharing a hotel suit –with separate bedrooms- in Portugal just three months after leaving the States, it had been a stop on their way to Spain, and Will had been aware the entire time through their dinner and wine out on the balcony that Hannibal had been watching him with an intensity that went beyond the usual kind and that he'd been behaving differently too. Hannibal had always been urbane, but that night he'd seemed intentionally suave with regards to Will, so cleverly and with such finesse, he'd laced flirtatious jest into their conversations along with subtly evocative looks. He'd also been watching Will's mouth rather obviously as they talked, especially when Will would genuinely smile at him –a rare sight, Hannibal had pointed out- and the older man had been giving off all the telling vibes of _that_ particular type of interest. Will could not have missed the hints if he'd tried.

His choices had been to clam up, all guards raised, or to accept what Hannibal was putting out there.

It was a choice he'd had to make that would define their relationship going forward. He'd had to answer the unspoken question from Hannibal of; Are we to remain platonic or can there be more between us?

So Will had made his choice, and after they'd had dessert that night, he'd been the one to stand closer than necessary to Hannibal while they'd been looking out over the balcony at the view of the city. Will had purposely given Hannibal the in he'd been waiting for by using body language - smiling in a slightly arch way, wetting his lips, making lingering eye contact, slowly rubbing his neck and his shoulder beneath his shirt, running a hand through his hair, leaning his back against the balcony balustrade, his front stretched and relaxed- and all the while returning the glances to Hannibal's mouth as they spoke and keeping his tone lower and more personal.

Will was no Casanova, but he knew well enough how to drop hints that he was interested, and it hadn't even been about being straight or gay in that moment, it had purely been about whether he would be completely with Hannibal or not from then on, it had been about being as close as possible. And Hannibal had noticed the change in Will almost immediately, having only managed to restrain himself for all of a minute before he'd seized the given opportunity by pressing Will up against the balustrade, trapped in the bracket of his arms and kissed him, Frenched him actually, without any preliminaries whatsoever. And a few minutes thereafter, Will had come away short on breath and flushed, with swollen lips and the taste of Hannibal on his tongue and at the back of his mouth…and he'd smiled.

* * *

Presently Will was smiling at Hannibal as the older man walked up to him and gave him light lip to lip kisses, the usual two or three firm pecks of their lips to say hello, sometimes with a hint of tongue and other times not.

But this time, when Hannibal drew back, Will placed his hand on Hannibal's side and curled his fingers into the older man's shirt to keep him near so he could get another kiss, a deeper kiss. Hannibal's smile widened a fraction as he kissed Will again, one slow press of lips before Will parted his mouth and Hannibal licked his way inside, his arms coming up so one was around Will's shoulders and the other was holding the side of Will's neck, his thumb caressing the underside of Will's upturned jaw.

Will placed his arm around Hannibal's waist as he absently reached out and set the wine bottle down on the island counter beside them, his fingers brushing down the bottle and catching on the counter edge to make sure it wouldn't fall before he wrapped his other now available arm around Hannibal as well. He pressed into the kiss, tilting his head and sliding his tongue against Hannibal's.

They kissed for a long minute, filling their immediate space with the soft wet sounds of it and their breathing, the falsetto notes of the violin music filling the rest of the space and they only separated when Heller and Remy came trotting in, rubbing up against their legs in greeting to Hannibal and leaving fur on the older man's expensive tailored pants. Hannibal glanced down at them with a fond sigh and Will watched him with a small smile and tingling lips, his eyes tracking over Hannibal's side profile until the older man looked at him again and gave him a few more lingering pecks on his lips before turning his attention to the wine bottle on the counter.

He slid one hand down Will's arm before he picked the bottle up, his other hand he moved from the side of Will's neck and placed it on Will's waist,

"Your favorite wine," he commented as he read the label and Will immediately thought of the new bottle of wine in cellar and kept his calm. Hannibal looked at him again, smiling, "and dinner smells delicious." He observed, looking over Will's face with tender appreciation as the music went silent for a moment,

"Seared beef with smoked tomato drizzle, it's the first simple thing I found that I could make quickly and relatively easy amongst your collection of recipes." Will explained, enjoying the scent of Hannibal's day worn skin mingling with his cologne as well as the firm line of his body where it was pressed against Will's.

"Is there an occasion?" Hannibal asked, looking vaguely amused and all Will could think was; _engagement dinner_.

He raised his eyebrows briefly as the music started up again –Will recognized Mozart- and then he frowned and shook his head to Hannibal's question,

"Ah, no…no occasion…" he was starting to blush, didn't manage to stop thinking about Hannibal proposing to him, "…just, you were going to be late, so I…made dinner, I've done that before." He pointed out, leaning in and kissing Hannibal's jaw, feeling the first bristles of his stubble for the day, smelling his aftershave, aware of Hannibal's hand sliding around to his lower back.

Will closed his eyes as his chest ached with the thrum of emotions building there and he again remembered Isa's words to him, _Estás tan enamorado_. He hadn't understood it then but he did now. She'd said to him: _You are so in love._ And it was so, **so** , true. He was so very in love with Hannibal Lecter.

And he was more than ready to say _yes_ to a proposal.

"While that is true, usually you err more on the side of simple cooking and not gourmet." Hannibal pointed out as he placed the wine bottle back on the counter and dipped his head to catch Will's lips in another short but open mouthed kiss before he brushed their noses together, making Will's stomach feel as if gravity no longer occupied the space there as Hannibal spoke against his lips, "So if you'll forgive my curiosity." He added with a touch of husk to his tone.

Will swallowed thickly, sliding his hands over Hannibal's flanks in a caress, and he was blushing –that damn fucking engagement ring was making him hormonal- as he smiled against Hannibal's mouth and answered,

"I guess…because I, I love you…so I just felt like it." He said softly, his voice just about carrying under the sound of piano keys, and there was a light tremor in his voice that he couldn't disguise when he was being so completely honest with Hannibal.

Will used the words _I love you_ often enough, and he was comfortable with how deeply he meant it whenever he said it and while Hannibal had never said those words back, Will was strangely comfortable with that too.

"Of all the possible reasons, that will always be my favorite." Hannibal responded quietly and after a moment of looking intently into Will's face with clear affection, Hannibal gave him one last slow kiss and then he parted from Will and picked the wine bottle up again before walking over to the drawer where he'd find a cork screw, "I'm eager to taste what you've prepared, you've learned a great deal in the time we've been cooking together." He was saying as started to uncork the wine.

Will had to take a steadying breath, feeling all over the place mentally and emotionally after his discovery that afternoon and from Hannibal's kisses just then. He busied himself with picking up the empty wine glasses and carrying them over to the table, setting them beside the two set places opposite one another.

Hannibal came around to the table and poured the wine while Will retrieved the food, bringing the dishes to the table and setting them down,

"My presentation is sorely lacking, just so you know." he pointed out as he took a seat opposite Hannibal's just a moment before Hannibal sat down as well.

"The accurate and knowledgeable preparation of a meal is accountable for its taste and quality, the presentation is simply a choice to embellish." Hannibal spoke as he placed his napkin over his lap, Will doing likewise.

Will reached for his glass and sipped his wine first, licking his lips afterward and watching as Hannibal used his knife and fork to bring a few slices of the finely sliced meat from the ceramic dish between them, onto his plate.

Will waited as Hannibal added some of the cucumber and olive salad that Will had made in the time he'd had to spare, to his plate before he drizzled some of the sauce over the meat and finally cut into it. He knew Will was waiting to hear his opinion, and Hannibal waited until he'd properly tasted the meat after a few chews before he smiled at Will and nodded,

"As delicious as it smells." He complimented as he cut another piece, swallowing his mouthful.

Will's lips twitched into a grateful smile as he brought meat and salad onto his own plate,

"Just as long as it's edible." he joked.

"Entirely." Hannibal reassured, "You've done an excellent job of taking such a tasteless and foul young specimen and making her into something one is able to stomach." He smirked, picking up his wine and sipping from it.

Will laughed and raised his eyebrows,

"As did you, especially when you made that sweet pomegranate meat dish," Will chewed on a bite of the meat, finding it did taste good, "that was amazing." He finished.

Hannibal inclined his head in thanks to the compliment, smiling as he chewed.

And for a few minutes they ate in silence, the music changing again and maintaining a soothing atmosphere.

Remy trotted by the kitchen area after a while and distracted Will from watching Hannibal's mouth and hands as they ate, which made him realize the older man was almost done with his food and he remembered,

"I didn't make dessert, so if you're alright with slumming it," he smirked against the rim of his wine glass, "we can just eat some ordinary vanilla ice cream out of ordinary bowls." It was expensive ice cream, but plain ice cream nevertheless.

Hannibal nodded with a smirk,

"Perhaps." He said before crunching on some of the salad.

Will found himself wondering if Hannibal wasn't all that hungry, since he usually ate more than just once helping of dinner, and it reminded him of Hannibal coming home late,

"So, what was your social call about?" Will leaned back in his chair holding his wine glass, watching Hannibal and absently pondering how much better it'd be to call him his husband and not his romantic partner or lover or _boyfriend_. Ugh. That last one was the worst by far, it sounded so cheap, so understated.

Hannibal swirled his wine lightly and then sipped it,

"Juan introduced me to a new colleague of his. A fellow doctor he is planning to go into business with. We had a drink at _La Bahía_ and discussed their prospects."

Will recognized the restaurant Hannibal mentioned, it was on the beachfront not far from where he worked,

"Juan's starting his own practice?"

Hannibal nodded,

"It's something he's wanted to do for a while, I'm certain he'll be quite successful." He sipped his wine again as he stared outside through the large windows at the side gardens of the house, a thoughtful expression on his face. The sun was no longer visible but the sky was tinged purple-orange hues.

Will thought he knew what Hannibal was thinking about,

"Do you miss having your own practice?" he fingered the stem of his glass as he set it down on the table, watching the older man. Hannibal's eyes slid to him and a slight smile settled on his face,

"I had thought I did," he paused for a moment before he reached across the table for Will's hand, curling his fingers under Will's and leaning forward as he brought Will's knuckles to his lips and pressed a kiss there, looking at Will, "but then I consider all that I have now and I find I'm too content to miss anything from my prior life." He said quietly, stroking his thumb over Will's fingers.

It was Will's left hand that he held and while Hannibal didn't place any emphasis on Will's ring finger, it was all Will could focus on with Hannibal holding his hand that way and saying words like that. His brain was firing off feelings and thoughts rapidly, his heart racing all over again, he was nervous, thinking maybe the proposal would happen right then, or later that night, or the next night.

"Are you alright, Will?" Hannibal frowned, sliding his fingers to Will's wrist to check his pulse with a light grip, "Do you feel unwell?" he asked evenly.

Will blinked a few times and ran his other hand back through his hair as he extracted his wrist from Hannibal's warm hand as casually as he could,

"I'm fine, why…why wouldn't I be?" he shook his head, telling himself for the umpteenth time to get his shit together.

Hannibal sat back, a slight crease in his brow as he considered Will with mild concern,

"Your heart rate has been elevated several times since I've arrived home and you're also florid in your neck and face presently." Hannibal pointed out and Will knew he just became even more _florid_ by having his floridity pointed out. "I had first suspected you were simply feeling amative, since I was able to smell your arousal since before you kissed me," Will closed his eyes and rubbed a hand over his bright red face, "but I can also detect anxiety, so I'm not so sure I understand how you're feeling at this moment."

Will wondered what his anxiety smelled like to Hannibal. He knew his arousal smelled metallic and spicy to the older man, he'd asked that question before, but he didn't want to ask about his stress smells, he actually just wanted to stop acting so hormonal all together.

He sighed with a tilted smile,

"Well, I…don't feel unwell…" he picked his wine up and took a drink from it to stall, realizing he had to make up some excuse for being stressed and acting so weird, "…it's…maybe, maybe it's just because I had a long day, a few new students who I needed to go over the language basics with after my class, so it ran a half hour later than usual." He sipped more wine, shaking his head lightly, "And it's ridiculous because my job is not nearly as difficult as yours is, nor do I work for as many hours as you, so I shouldn't be complaining." He pointed out.

Hannibal had crossed his knife and fork to the side of plate, a sign that he was done eating and he wiped at his lips with his napkin before he spoke,

"I'd rather you tell me when something is bothering or upsetting you, no matter of how little consequence you think it is or whether you don't feel that it's important, Will, please." He paused and regarded his near empty wine glass, "And while my work is technically more complicated than what you do, let us not forget that I am not affected by my occupation, not mentally, physically or socially."

Right…because Hannibal was a psychopath and all.

Will smiled, a queer twisting of his lips as he regarded Hannibal,

"I guess it's a good thing," he inhaled quietly, "that I'm able to forget what you are sometimes," he added. It was a good thing, because it made Hannibal seem just a little more human when Will didn't think of him in terms of how many of his emotions were fabricated on a daily basis, but he wouldn't say all that, "I think it means we're close enough that it…just doesn't matter anymore, I don't ever really think about it." He said instead, lowering his eyes to the table.

Hannibal didn't comment on that, he just continued the conversation in a different direction,

"You've much experience dealing with students though, so I'm curious as to what about today would have stressed you out?" he enquired, and Will should have expected it.

He hadn't been lying though, he had had new students and his class had dragged on a bit, hence the reason he'd rushed around to buy his candy, but he hadn't been _stressed_ about them, they'd been an inconvenience at worst.

Will figured it could work as an excuse though,

"They're young and curious…" he half rolled his eyes as he shook his head, " and I'm… _Americano_ , _guapo_ and _soltero_ ," he nearly choked on that last word because of the thought of that engagement ring, just waiting to be put on Will's finger so he would be decidedly _not_ mistaken for single anymore. He bobbed his eyebrows and glanced outside at the darkening sky, "as far as they know at least." He finished his wine and shrugged, "So they ask too many personal questions and make assumptions and want to know where in the world I've travelled…" Will blinked, "…some of them flirt with me." He mumbled, unsure of why he'd said that last bit.

But he guessed maybe he was subconsciously trying to provoke Hannibal to do something about his assumed availability, letting Hannibal know there was _interest_. But he felt guilty and nauseous right after he'd said it because Will knew Hannibal probably had plenty of women –and men- too who'd be interested in him.

Far more than Will, surely.

And it wasn't a damn competition anyway.

Hannibal smiled, very slight, as he licked wine from his lips and pushed his chair back evenly, standing as gracefully as ever,

"Beautiful Spanish women flirting with you cannot be all that distressing, I'm sure." He sounded unaffected, amused even and Will didn't know whether to be relieved or irritated by that, "But I can see how their curiosity about you personally would be bothersome." He added, gathering dishes to clear the table.

Will wiped his mouth with his napkin as he watched Hannibal take his plate,

"I'm fine, I…deflect…casually, change the subject to their mispronunciations or properly used English words." He mumbled, his chest feeling sore, Will wished he'd hadn't mentioned the flirting.

Hannibal wouldn't understand why he was being so touchy in the first place and Will didn't want him to take anything said or mentioned the wrong way. It was just that damn ring…burning a hole in Will's brain.

"That is the best you can do," Hannibal said from where he stood at the sink, "in an informal setting such as your classes, catering to adults specifically, there are bound to be those who will attempt to be friendly and personable, it's unfortunate but unavoidable." He said reasonably, switching on the garbage disposal and rinsing the scraps off the plates.

The dogs wandered back into the kitchen then, looking restless even as the noise drowned out their soft whining. Their tails were wagging and they looked expectant, Will knew they wanted some play time with him and when Remy barked, Will pushed his chair out and stood up,

"Alright…" he smiled at them, a second bark making Hannibal glance over as he switched off the garbage disposal, "…no need to get fussy, let's go." Will stood up, petting the dogs and walking to the sliding glass doors in the kitchen. Will unlatched them before pushing them open and the pair of dogs darted outside onto the grass excitedly, immediately sniffing and running and beginning to play, barking and whining at Will to follow.

Hannibal had cleared the food from the plates and was loading the dishwasher, Will glanced at him, considering saying something, but then decided against it, choosing rather to go outside and spend some time with the dogs.

* * *

 _Tuesday – 13 Sep 2022 – 8.21 PM_

Twenty minutes later Will went back inside the now silent house, the music no longer playing. The dogs were still enjoying the cool evening weather so he left the kitchen doors open and headed inside by himself. He was also enjoying the breeze that moved through the house from outside, cooling his warm skin and ruffling his hair.

The cross breeze he was feeling meant that Hannibal had opened another set of doors somewhere in the house and after making a detour into the downstairs bathroom to urinate and wash his hands, Will went in search of the older man. He assumed Hannibal would be in the main living room at the front of the house and he was right. Will walked in and his eyes fell on Hannibal, who was sitting in his usual seat on the low white leather sectional sofa, facing the large sliding glass door.

He had his tablet out and was leaning back with his legs crossed, probably checking emails or reading foreign news, as was the norm for him after dinner most days. Will's norm was that he would usually sit on the other length of the sofa nearer to the sliding door, where'd he be facing the flat screen TV, and he'd switch it on and watch the news or whatever else he found interesting.

They had something of a routine, and it was comfortable and domestic and Will liked it.

Will walked across the living room, taking a step up into the contemporary home bar built into the back. Will browsed the right wall shelf and picked up the open bottle of Lagavulin scotch whiskey he favored, proceeding to pour two shots into a pair of tumblers, one a double shot for himself, and for Hannibal, only a single.

He sealed the bottle and placed it back on the wall shelf, picking up the glasses and walking over to Hannibal, who glanced up when Will rounded the sofa before reaching out to take the proffered glass,

"Thank you." He said distractedly, his eyes sliding back to whatever he was reading.

Will took a few steps to his usual spot on the other end of the couch, picking the remote up from the black reflective coffee table and switching on the TV before sitting down and starting to flick through the channels.

They sat that way for a long while, Hannibal finishing his drink before Will and setting his glass down on the table between then, returning to his reading and occasionally tapping at the screen. Will wasn't really watching the television, his focus was more on Hannibal.

Hannibal had been right about Will feeling 'amative', although Will opted to call himself horny rather. The engagement ring had set his libido rolling and it hadn't settled yet, so Will was having trouble focusing on anything besides the older man. He kept glancing over, having long since developed a proper physical attraction to Hannibal, he'd come to appreciate Hannibal's long lean muscled body, his slender sinewy hands, the line of his broad shoulders and the exotic sharpness of his facial features.

The cool air moving through the room did nothing to appease the heat on his skin and Will eventually just gave up on trying to quell his hormones. That fucking ring and its implication had turned him all the way on and he needed to do something about at least that, if he could do nothing else.

So he stood up and set his glass down on the table, crossing the short distance and coming to stand in front of the older man, bumping Hannibal's knee with his own.

Will didn't want to be rude and just take Hannibal's tablet from him, so he gave some forewarning,

"Remember how you pointed out earlier that I'm horny…" he smiled down at Hannibal, who looked up at him with a raised eyebrow and a slowly broadening smile. Will reached for the tablet as Hannibal uncrossed his legs and Will closed the leather cover over the screen before he set it down next to them on the sofa.

With that out of the way, Will climbed onto the couch with his legs astride Hannibal's lap, bent at the knees and his thighs pressed against either side of the older man legs and he leaned in with his hands on Hannibal's shoulders, kissing him soundly, lips first before Will opened his mouth to Hannibal's tongue.

Hannibal smiled into the kiss, no objections whatsoever to being interrupted as he slid his tongue against Will's, their mouths opening and closing against one another's as they kissed slowly and deeply. Will wrapped his arms around Hannibal's neck, leaning his forearms on the low back of the sofa as he got comfortable. Hannibal's hands firmly caressed over Will's thighs, sliding up to his waist before moving underneath Will's shirt and caressing his back and sides, skin to skin.

Will inhaled deeply and then sighed into Hannibal's mouth, feeling contented as he brought one of his hands to slide down over Hannibal's chest, feeling the buttons of the shirt and the firmness of Hannibal's upper body before going lower and pressing his hand against the older man's crotch, palming at Hannibal's stiffening cock through his pants.

Hannibal drew back from the kiss for a few seconds to suck and bite at Will's lips and jaw before sliding his tongue back into Will's mouth and moving his hands to settle on Will's ass, where he squeezed and Will rolled his hips down and forward in an abrupt grind as a response. Will moaned as Hannibal continued to touch him and the older man kissed Will hungrily as his other hand slid up into Will's hair to pull him closer, tilting and angling his head so he could kiss Will that much deeper.

They kissed – or if you asked Will, he'd say made out- for a long while.

Hannibal eventually drew back and after placing a kiss to the corner of Will's open mouth, he licked his lips and wearing a slanting smiling he asked quietly,

"May I ask what has inspired your mood this evening?" the breeze caught and tousled their hair as the wind kicked up again outside. Will pressed another kiss to Hannibal's mouth, loving the fact that he could just sit around and make out with Hannibal Lecter - they didn't need to hurry, they could take all night if they wanted, they'd get to the sex eventually- and he hummed softly before he answered in a half truth,  
"Earlier, while I was making dinner, I was thinking about the first dinner we had with Juan and Isa…" he kissed Hannibal again, swiping his tongue deeply into Hannibal's mouth just once, "…and I remembered what a hard time I had keeping my hands off you that night." He grinned as Hannibal left a trail of moist kisses along his jaw.

Their mouths came together again for a few long, wet kisses and when it ended again, Hannibal hummed softly and ran his hands down the tops of Will's thighs and then back up to settled on his waist again. Will noticed the moment when Hannibal's mind drifted, his gaze becoming distant and it was clear something was on his mind.

Will licked his kiss swollen lips and sat back on Hannibal's thighs, beginning to undo the buttons of Hannibal's shirt,

"What's wrong?" he asked as he popped open button after button.

Hannibal inhaled lightly and glanced at Will's busy hands before looking at his face again,

"You mentioning Juan and Isa has reminded me of something he said this afternoon."

Will undid the last two buttons and opened the flaps of Hannibal's shirt before pressing his hands to the older man's chest, running his palms over the silvery-brown hair there and up unto Hannibal's shoulders under the shirt,

"And?" he prompted when Hannibal didn't go on, just sat watching Will's face.

He raised an eyebrow and lightly clenched his fingers into Will's shirt when Will slid his hands down to unbuckle Hannibal's belt,

"And I wasn't sure I should bring it up."

"Well, you have now," Will left Hannibal's belt undone and placed his hands on his chest again, "so…?" he slid his hands up and massaged the front of Hannibal's shoulders.

Hannibal inhaled deeply and slid his hands back down over Will's thighs as he spoke,

"Juan, and Isa as well, have asked us to join them…" he lips quirked downward, "…on a…couples retreat."

Will paused with his hands on Hannibal's collarbone and he blinked,

"A…couples retreat." He repeated, except unlike Hannibal, who looked miffed, Will wanted to smile.

"Yes." Hannibal confirmed dully, "He's also invited his new colleague and her husband."

Will slid his hands down to Hannibal's abdomen as he absorbed the information and then he raised his eyebrows,

"So…three couples, on a couples retreat." Will was interested in hearing more, if only because it seemed like a place where something like a marriage proposal might ideally take place, "Where exactly…would this be?" because where was important. While they'd been presumed dead after a year of their bodies not turning up, it didn't mean they wouldn't be recognized in places frequented by people from North America and parts of Europe. As it was they wore dark sunglasses whenever they went out as a general precaution.

Hannibal noticed that Will didn't seem adverse to the idea, even if he was himself,

"Right here in Spain, a private resort in Costa del Sol."

Will smiled slightly then, leaning forward and placing his hands on either side of Hannibal's neck as he kissed the older man again. Slow kisses, light kisses, shallow kisses with hints of tongue and teeth, minutes ticking by before he drew back again and looked into Hannibal's half-mast gaze,

"Do you think it'd be safe?" he asked against Hannibal's mouth.

Hannibal sniffed idly, his lips more obviously downturned,

"Juan said it was to a private resort, a getaway just for friends…but I suspect…" he brought a hand up to caress the side of Will's neck, "…that he wants to ask me to go into business with them as well, and is hoping to use this retreat as a way for me to get to know this other doctor."

That sounded less ideal, but Will was still curious,

"Who is…she?" he remembered Hannibal's reference to her as being a female.

"Doctor Adoncia De Villafranca." Hannibal provided.

"Your opinion after meeting her?" Will cocked an eyebrow and slid a hand up into Hannibal's soft hair.

"She's young, naïve and obviously new to being wealthy." He trailed his thumb over Will's adams apple, "Married into money, her husband is a doctor as well, a heart surgeon. His name is Eurico and his last name, De Villafranca, has a rich and notable ancestry." He sounded unimpressed all the same.

Will could hear it plainly in Hannibal's tone that he wasn't interested in the couples retreat, even if Will surprisingly was. But he wouldn't force the issue, if Hannibal didn't want to go then they wouldn't go,

"Any interest in doing business with them?" he changed the subject.

Hannibal shrugged facially, brushing his fingers over the scar on Will's right cheek that was mostly hidden by his neatly kept beard,

"Not presently."

"But you could be persuaded by Juan…or, do you want to eat missus nouveau riche, was she stereotypically rude and vapid?" Will had both of his hands in Hannibal's hair now, feeling the fine strands between his fingers, giving up on the idea of going altogether.

Hannibal looked over his face and into his eyes, holding the side of Will's neck as he brought him closer for a kiss, short and sweet, before he asked,

"Would you like to go, Will?"

Will knew immediately that Hannibal was seriously asking and he instinctively wanted to answer honestly, so he decided to do just that, and he looked into Hannibal's face as he spoke,

"It…I, I haven't…" he huffed awkwardly, "…it would, I guess, be a new experience and it sounds like it might be…I don't, nice…somehow." He rolled his eyes at himself and sat back on Hannibal thighs again, sighing, "Couple friends and couples retreats and private resorts in beautiful places along the coast of Spain…those are ideas that never crossed my mind in my previous life. I'd never even…fantasized about it, it seemed impossible. But now," Will rubbed his hand over the side of his face and shook his head, feeling uncomfortable, because there was one word that came to mind, one word that reminded him of the ring and getting engaged, that kept going around in his head and he didn't know how Hannibal would take it, "now those things are possible, n-no, more than possible," he managed a frowning smile, "they're at my fingertips, Hannibal. And I'd never have thought I could be interested in any of it…" he swiped one hand lightly through the air.

"But you are…" Hannibal said quietly and after pause, Will sighed again and nodded unevenly,

"…but, I am." Will swallowed tensely and decided to just come out and say the words, "Also…it sounds, I guess…r-romantic." He laughed, a short incredulous sound, immediately after he said it and shook his head, "Jesus, how much am I turning you off right now?" he wiped his hand over his mouth, knowing he had to take the focus off what he'd just said because he was turning red in his face and Hannibal was just staring at him…

…so Will leaned in and kissed him.

He kept Hannibal's mouth occupied for a while with his tongue and his teeth and soft suckles to his lips, pressing himself forward and down as much as he could to rub their bodies together. Eventually Will slipped a hand between them to feel that Hannibal was still hard and he felt a little less like the nonsense he'd been spouting earlier might have affected anything between them.

In between their next few kisses Hannibal told Will he wanted to take a shower, asked if he'd mind joining him.

Will agreed, glad to, despite having showered already and shortly after that they made their way upstairs, the conversation about couples retreats and romance simply over.

Will didn't mind, because Hannibal Lecter was who he'd chosen and that was who he had…and who he loved.


	3. Dine On Glass

A/n: This chapter has REMOVED CONTENT due to the NC 17 nature of it. For the uncensored chapter, please see my AO3 account.

* * *

"The Devil's hand directs our every move, the things we loathed become the things we love"  
― Charles Baudelaire

* * *

 _Tuesday – 13 Sep 2022 – 9.34 PM_

Will exhaled a breathy laugh when Hannibal rolled him forward and spooned up behind him, placing one hand on Will's hip and one thigh between Will's legs as he continued to kiss along Will's neck and shoulder in the aftermath of sex, smoothing his hand over Will's chest and over the plane of his stomach, Will's skin was slick with sweat under Hannibal's palm.

It still amazed Will sometimes that Hannibal was a 'cuddler', but he never failed to enjoy it, turning his face into the soft mound of pillows under his head and giving Hannibal more access to his neck so the older man could kiss and nuzzle against his skin and into his damp hair.

They laid that way for a while, their heart rates and breathing evening out and Will felt sleepier by the minute, and he was honestly on the verge of falling asleep when he remembered,

"I need to lock up downstairs…bring in the dogs…" he mumbled, leaning back into Hannibal with a sleepy sigh when the older man pressed against him, their skin hot, still sticky, pressed sweetly close and intimate.

"I'll see to it." He rumbled deeply in his accent against the nape of Will's neck, nosing the hair there.

"Are you sure?" Will asked but he already knew Hannibal would say yes and his eyes were drooping as he stared out beyond the windowed wall of the bedroom, the electric curtains were still open and beyond the balcony was just dark blue sky, it was so peaceful.

Hannibal hummed his assent and Will mumbled a thank you, letting his eyes fall closed and enjoying the feeling of Hannibal's breath on his neck and his fingers tracing patterns on Will's hip. He would have fallen asleep within a minute, but Hannibal's quiet words woke him,

"I didn't realize you were interested in romance."

Will's eyes snapped open, threatening to fall closed again as he blinked a few times, his stomach having dropped unpleasantly at the subject Hannibal had just brought up. Will had thought the conversation from earlier would have been put aside, brushed off permanently, but now Hannibal was bringing it up and Will was feeling worried and uncertain all over again.

Hannibal wasn't a romantic man, he was a refined monster.

So in end, maybe it wasn't such a good thing that Will forgot that 'monster' detail, because it made him say stupid things about romance.

He frowned and turned his face almost entirely into the pillow, trying not to start stressing because Hannibal would _smell_ it,

"Neither did I." he muttered, upset with himself for his stupidity.

' _Dare to dream that you could have something so normal in your abnormal relationship, Graham.'_ He berated himself mentally and automatically wondered what it'd be like to be Will Lecter, not Will Graham and he frowned deeper, sadder, for the pain it brought to his chest. He really _wanted_ it now that he knew he could have it.

Or at least something close to it. Ethan Kask would be fine, it'd still be him and Hannibal, no matter what their names.

Hannibal nuzzled behind Will's ear, inhaling quietly,

"Why have you never mentioned it before?"

"I don't know…" Will answered quickly and curtly, upset by the whole thing and he curled in on himself slightly, letting in some cool air between their sticky bodies, "…for the same…damn reason I regret bringing it up tonight, it's…it's incredibly…it's just stupid." He sighed louder than necessary, the afterglow of their sex officially gone.

Hannibal made a sound close to a sigh,

"As I said earlier, Will, you need to tell me if something is bothering you, or I can't be expect-…"

"I don't _expect_ anything, Hannibal," Will sat up on his side then, leaning on his hand and moving himself more away from Hannibal in doing so, and he rubbed his face irritably before carding his hand up into his hair and shaking his head, "I don't sit around thinking about it, you just…you mentioned the retreat and I…I liked how it sounded, it's not more than that, it's nothing that's been _bothering_ me." Will huffed, frustrated.

He and Hannibal didn't argue often and they hadn't done so in many weeks, the last time having been over Will finding out that Hannibal occasionally gave Heller and Remy pieces of raw human meat to snack on. Honestly, Will just didn't like arguing with Hannibal in general, because it was hardly an argument when all Hannibal did was speak in a normal, if slightly tighter tone, using his words sparingly and as if he were just managing Will's temper. It often made Will feel overly emotional, too immature, too _outclassed_ by a violent monster who was so damnably level headed in _everything_.

And while Will knew he was feeling weird because he'd seen the engagement ring and it was making him react badly and feel defensive…it was only because he felt so vulnerable for wanting it so much.

Thoughts of getting married were giving him fanciful ideas of a private wedding and vows and a _romantic_ honeymoon. It was more than a little pathetic.

"Were you romantic with your wife?" and, wow, was that the worst question Hannibal could have asked.

" _ **Ex-wife**_ , Hannibal, Jesus." Will felt nauseous instantly, he _never_ thought about Molly as his wife anymore and Hannibal bringing her up hurt because he should know how unimportant anything from Will's former life was, "And no," he said sharply, temper raised, "no I wasn't, she probably felt about as insecure…about bringing it up with me," he laughed humorlessly, "as I feel bringing it up with you." He hated the way his stomach was shaking, he didn't want to talk about the things that might be wrong with their 'relationship', because he didn't want anything to be wrong.

Will liked being happy and he was happy with Hannibal. He didn't want to fuck that up.

All sleepiness gone, Will shifted to get off the bed, aware that he'd have to go to the bathroom first before he could go anywhere else in the house, but he didn't get any further than standing up at the side of the bed before he heard Hannibal shift and, quickly, two strong arms wrapped around his waist, pulling him backwards.

Will sat tensely on the edge of the bed between Hannibal's legs, the older man holding him firmly back against his chest as he pressed his lips to the back of Will's shoulder,

"Why do you still doubt that I would do anything to please you?" he asked quietly and Will frowned, all of those sappy emotions that had been awakened that afternoon lodging a new lump in his throat, "I loathe hearing that I make you feel insecure," Hannibal squeezed Will a little tighter, inhaling against his skin, "and it infuriates me to think that I make you unhappy." he quietly growled and Will melted bit by bit, leaning back into Hannibal.

Hannibal skimmed his lips up to speak against Will's ear in a purring tone,

" _Mylimasis_ , if you want romance I will suffuse and saturate you with it." He began and Will pursed his lips, unsure of how he was supposed to take that, was it mockery? He started to shake his head,

"Hannibal-…"

"I'll bring you red roses, and prepare a candlelit dinner with various chocolate and strawberry desserts," he went on, his voice a low and breathy sensation against the crook of Will's neck, "which I will feed to you in between amorous kisses and whispered adulations in every language I know," he sounded amused and Will was blushing, thinking of how stupid it sounded when Hannibal put it like that. And he wasn't done apparently, kissing Will's neck once before continuing, "I'll draw you a hot bath laced with salts, lavender oil and bubbles and while you drink _Ramonet Montrachet,_ I'll lather your skin and hair with soaps, relaxing your body with attentive touches as I remind you of just how exquisite you are to me." the vowels and consonants curled and lisped uniquely around every accented word and Will was smiling slightly now, pretty sure Hannibal was just diffusing the tension with his words of cliché romance, but hell, it was working.

"Then I'll lie you here, in our bed," he went on, his lips against Will's ear now and Will's pulse began to race at hearing the change, the new depth and roughness of Hannibal's voice, "there will be rose petals and scented candles and I will take my time touching and kissing every inch of your body before I make love to you for _hours_ ," he sounded particularly gruff when he said that and Will shivered lightly, "to a sonata that I will have composed just for you, and when I'm done you will be sore…but also **deeply** satisfied." Will's toes curled against the wooden flooring, closing his eyes briefly as he considered a wedding night made up of such a stupid, girlish fantasy, "And that would be on just _one_ occasion." Hannibal finished and he was grinning, Will could feel his teeth against the shell of his ear.

Will's mind was swimming in thoughts of what could be, and he was also a little thrown by the term of 'make love', because Hannibal had never used it before, but he didn't over think it, instead he laughed softly and shook his head to clear his premature –and somewhat pitiful- imaginings,

"I get it, you would…assault me with all manner of corny romance inanities, until I'd feel like a spoiled and pampered princess." he acknowledged in as neutral a tone as he could manage.

Hannibal chuckled quietly, and it vibrated from his chest into Will's back, and right into his bones, and to the tips of his ears, fingers and toes and Will relaxed further as Hannibal responded,

"Alternatively, we could go on this retreat and indulge ourselves for a few days with just being a couple around other couples." He offered sincerely, bringing his arms up to wrap around Will's upper arms and body and Will's chest hurt with a swell of emotion when he realized that Hannibal was serious.

And all over again he was excited, thinking that maybe Hannibal was considering using the opportunity to propose.

Will shifted then, turning around and straddling Hannibal, pressing close, sliding his hands down, his arms loosely circling Hannibal's torso as Will kissed him a few times,

"I'd…like that." Will admitted, smiling against Hannibal's mouth, "Just being a couple for a few days."

"Then you shall have it." Hannibal smiled too, an honest curve of his lips as his arms encircled Will,

"My wish is your command?" Will teased, kissing Hannibal again, his top lip pressing just right between Will's lips,

"You joke…" Hannibal said when they parted, "…without realizing how right you are." and again, he was serious.

Will was too tired to deal with how quickly his chest got all tight and warm right then with an excess of emotion, so he didn't try to restrain his feelings, rather he brought his arms up to wrap them around Hannibal's shoulders in a hug, his face pressed to the side of the older man's neck to avoid any intense eye contact,  
"I'm sorry that I upset you…" he sighed into Hannibal's warm skin, "…you do make me happy, it's just been a…weird day." he said carelessly, not considering that Hannibal might question him about what had been weird.

But the older man didn't, he simply stroked Will's lower back for a quiet moment and then kissed Will's scarred right shoulder before he said quietly,

"Get into bed, Will, I'll see to locking up and join you soon."

And after a quick, soft kiss, Will did as told, climbing off of Hannibal and lying down on the bed on his usual side, getting comfortable on his back. Hannibal pressed a kiss to Will's bent up knee before getting up and walking over to the built in wardrobes, retrieving a pair of pajama pants.

Will watched Hannibal leave the room and then he turned onto his side, pressing his face into his pillow and smiling, he felt lightheaded just thinking over Hannibal's words, even the awfully overkill romantic ideas he'd mentioned were still effective enough to make Will feel mushy inside. It was pathetic that he was a grown man feeling flattered and pleased by the idea of romantic gestures, but that was just how it was now. It was being happy and being in love, something Will hadn't really experienced before Hannibal, and it apparently affected him on a very deep level.

He was only human after all.

"Who knew I'd be a romantic sap under all of that depression." He mumbled to himself, shifting his legs and enjoying the familiar tenderness he always felt in his lower body after sex.

Will let his mind drift to thoughts of Hannibal's earlier words as he lay relaxed and on his way to falling asleep, and the Lithuanian word ' _m_ _ylimasis'_ resonated. He recognised it, Hannibal used it occasionally when refering to him. It meant darling or love or beloved and a few other variations. He hadn't asked Hannibal exactly what he meant when he said it but Will was fine with any of the options.

Because while Hannibal never said 'I love you', he meant so much in other things he said to Will that really, it didn't matter.

About ten minutes passed before Hannibal returned to the bedroom, Will was aware of the sound of the electric curtains closing followed by the click of a lightswitch which cast the room into moderate darkness. And when he felt the bed shift and Hannibal got in beside him, Will rolled over and moved nearer. He felt Hannibal's fingers thread through his hair and was coherent enough to pucker his lips for the few light kisses Hannibal gave him before they both settled down to sleep, lying close with their knees touching and feet intercrossed. Facing Hannibal with his head low on his pillow, Will had his one hand settled between their bodies with his fingers lightly touching Hannibal's stomach. Hannibal was lying higher up, also facing Will with one arm stretched out above Will's head and his other hand caressing Will's curls, likely to do so until one of them fell asleep, whoever managed to first.

And Will never had nightmares anymore, not with knowing the worst of the monsters was watching over him.

* * *

The following day Hannibal informed Will that the retreat was from Friday to Monday, at the end of that same week, which coincided perfectly with Will's weekly classes from Tuesday to Thursday. Hannibal didn't have to worry too much about keeping hours, he could move his appointments around to suit himself most of the time and Juan, probably Adoncia De Villafranca too, had arranged the retreat booking to suit their needs as well.

It had been Tuesday when Hannibal told Will about the retreat and the rest of the week passed as it usually did, with only two differences. One being Will making plans for Heller and Remy to stay in a dog hotel for the weekend and the other being that Will kept having to stop himself from going down to the cellar to see if the ring was still there or if Hannibal had moved it, maybe with the intention to pack it.

Will did try his best not to think about it, but whether he was teaching a class, or taking the dogs for a run on the beach, working out in their home gym or tidying up around the house, he could not get the damn engagement ring off his mind.

* * *

 _Thursday – 15 Sep 2022 – 7.05 PM_

When it was Thursday night, he and Hannibal were both in the bedroom packing weekend bags. The bedroom balcony doors were wide open and cool night air was filtering in pleasantly. They'd been talking about random things as they moved around one another with familiar ease in the space of their shared room.

At first they'd talked about what Hannibal knew of Costa Del Sol before they'd moved on to talking about Hannibal's mostly undecided thoughts on joining Juan in business. Randomly, Freddy Lounds had come up, Will mentioning that TattleCrime hadn't had any new reports lately and Hannibal suggesting that perhaps someone had finally put a stop to her ignominious behavior, or just _her_ in general, and he'd been wearing an amused smile on his face at the idea. Will had been amused too, liking the idea of her disrespectful brand of journalism finally coming to an end. They never did talk about how Freddy Lounds would be dead already if she hadn't driven out to Wolf Trap and been unintentionally spared Hannibal's wrath by Will.

There was no need to talk about that…

Hannibal went on to mention that he needed to restock their meat supply soon, asking if Will thought he should drive up or down the coast, or pick off a few people locally over the next few weeks. Because that's what they did, if they chose victims from Alicante then they spaced out the killings, otherwise, they would drive several hours out, book into a cash motel with other false identities, kill a minimum of two people and never more than four and then return home with their meat.

Hannibal would sometimes not even kill anyone when he was in a less murderous mood, to mix it up he'd occasionally just take organs in the same way a black market organ harvester would, without the precision of the talented surgeon he was, he'd be purposely sloppy instead and then he'd leave the victims alive to wake up whenever…or not. Whether they survived in the end, Will never cared, he was always just sure to check the papers and news to make sure nothing was leading back to them.

And then other times, with or without Will, Hannibal would go off and kill as violently and cruelly as he enjoyed and remove organs **and** limbs while his victims were still alive, which was just something Hannibal preferred. He never displayed the bodies though, and whatever he didn't take from the victims ended up efficiently disposed of.

Hannibal had been cleaning up after himself for years and Will had been fascinated to watch him work back when Will had still been learning, new to it all...

* * *

…the first time Will had been present for one of Hannibal's -formerly personal- hunts, through which he usually obtained his meat, Will had been left breathless and shaken from shock and adrenalin.

The experience had been different from killing Bedelia, who, despite everything she'd suffered, had still somehow managed to hold onto her fury, hatred, tethers of silence and even some abstract sort of dignity, right up until she took her last, pained, blood sodden breath. Also, Will had truly despised her, which had made it easier to kill her.

But for that first true **victim** , a man innocent but for having rudely bumped into a few people –including Will and Hannibal- on the streets of _Lagos_ in his angry haste, without even so much as a muttered apology, the experience had been wholly different. And it hadn't been the blood or the violence of the murder that had been a shock to Will's system, no, it had been the screaming. All the screaming –even gagged- had gotten to Will, especially since Hannibal hadn't drugged the man before he'd started cutting into him.

Hannibal had wanted Will to experience everything in real time, raw and uncensored.

It had been horrible and incredible and Will had –as he always did- tapped into the killer's mind at the time, into Hannibal's mind, and the older man's tranquil, deadly and **pleased** demeanor had grounded Will in the moment, had eased his shaking and kept him from wanting to throw up as he'd watched.

Later that night, after, when they'd returned to their temporary rented apartment, the sex had been rough and close. Hannibal had trapped Will beneath his stronger form on their double bed, had pinned Will face down, restrained his arms above his head with his hands, rendered his body prone and Hannibal had fucked him with a presence of force and hold of dominance that Will hadn't experienced from him until that night, and it had fit so well to the apex-predator that Hannibal was. Will had been a hot, writhing mess of empathetic emotions and physically reaching needs, and his own dark and unfurling desires had mixed with Hannibal's raw unbidden lust that night, having resulted in the sex being almost sadistic in its relentlessness.

Will had had a hoarse throat the morning after, and had just been grateful there'd been pillows to muffle him.

The second time Hannibal had taken Will along, Will hadn't been left to observe, he'd wanted to participate. Hannibal had stayed close as he'd guided Will through the process of carefully removing kidneys from a man. The second victim had been drugged so that he could not move but would feel everything, and Hannibal had whispered praises into Will's ear while he'd cut and snipped inside of the paralyzed body, which had been trying desperately to convulse in a show of pain. And when Will had held a whole, cleanly extracted kidney in his hands and the blood had slicked over his plastic covered hands and forearms, Hannibal had pressed himself against Will's back and the younger man had felt Hannibal's arousal as well as the sharp toothed smile he'd bared against Will's ear in approval. Will had felt both sick and powerful by the time he'd cut out the man's other kidney and his liver and when he'd had been taking the heart, intimately guided by Hannibal's hands through the delicate task, his own heart rate had _decreased_ substantially, his anxiety had ebbed and he'd felt…satisfied.

And he'd not done so by empathizing with Hannibal. It had been all of his own control that time.

Like he'd finally arrived.

They'd had sex again and that night, Will had not so readily succumbed to Hannibal's physical dominance. He'd grabbed and grappled and bitten and bruised Hannibal as much as he'd received in return and his aggressiveness had only served to please Hannibal even more. There'd been too prominent teeth marks in their flesh, almost broken skin dotted with petechiae, and nail scratches striping their skin along with dark finger bruises on hips, thighs, throats and wrists. Fistfuls of hair had been yanked and clung to and their teeth had clipped a few times during their biting, grinning kisses. It had been murder and sex at its finest, and Will had only just begun to embrace what he truly was back then.

He'd come so much farther now.

And every kill since, whenever Will went with Hannibal, each time it was a heady and gratifying experience, each kill was beautiful. It was a pity they were no longer able to make art like Hannibal had used to with his victim's bodies, but that didn't take away from the experience, the beauty and pleasure, of killing together.

* * *

It had been a few months though, since Will had gone with Hannibal and for a reason Will didn't even completely comprehend, he wasn't okay with Hannibal going alone anymore. He paused with a half folded T shirt in his hands and looked at Hannibal across the bed from him,

"I'll go with you." He said evenly. He didn't _need_ to go, he wasn't craving a kill, he hardly ever did since he was able to revel in a kill while it was happening and then be fine when he wasn't killing too, he and Hannibal had that in common. Murder was not an impulse they couldn't resist.

But Will felt like he had to go, there was some other instinct making itself known in him.

Hannibal glanced at Will and then he continued to pack socks neatly into his well-organized and skillfully compartmentalized suitcase, far neater than what Will had going on in his own bag.

"I hadn't thought to ask if you wanted to join me, you usually let me know in advance if you're interested." He responded, some of his brown/silver hair falling over his eyes as he leaned over to pull a zipper closed on the inner top flap of his suitcase, and then he looked at Will again when he stood up.

It was always Will's choice to go, Hannibal hadn't ever insisted, not since Will had run away with him.

"Well…yeah," Will blinked and then squinted slightly at Hannibal, his eyesight feeling a little strained because he was wearing his glasses, having taken his contact lenses out that afternoon when he got home from dropping the dogs off at the hotel, "I kept forgetting to mention it," a little lie, "let's go, uh, North." He said as evenly as possible as he tossed a few of his balled up of socks untidily into his suitcase.

Hannibal considered him for a moment and then packed in the last of his folded clothes, nodding at Will once he was satisfied with his bag,

"North it is." He said before idly touching a folded shirt, dragging his fingers over it absently and then turning around and walking toward the door,

"Where are you going?" Will asked as he stuffed some underwear into his suitcase.

"I have to fetch something from downstairs." Hannibal answered before walking out.

Abruptly left alone, Will closed his eyes for a moment and took in a deep breath, clenching his fingers absently in the cotton briefs he was holding; he'd be wearing proper underwear that weekend since he wouldn't be at home. He frowned to himself when he opened his eyes again and his unease hadn't settled, dropping the unfolded briefs into his bag and then rubbing his hands over his face before brushing stray curls away from his forehead as he tried to make sense of his reaction just then.

Something unpleasant and unsettling had settled in his stomach when Hannibal had said he'd be going away. The fact that it'd be four or five days of having no way of contacting Hannibal aside from a cell phone had made Will say he wanted to go with, and that hadn't ever happened before, he'd never felt like that, Hannibal had always gone and come back and life would go on…

Will clenched his jaw and turned around to sit on the bed beside his suitcase, having realized that for some **ridiculous** reason he was suddenly very worried about Hannibal's **mortality**. In his mind, a quiet voice that sounded like an old version of himself, posed the question; ' _Well, why should I bother marrying him if he's constantly putting his life in danger?_ ' and Will didn't like that voice because it was familiar in a very bad way.

It was a version of himself that took its reasoning from the far too neurotic and formerly neglected part of his limbic system, a place where a lot of his former self's negative emotions had since been sealed away.

The version of him that couldn't accept being happy, couldn't believe it was possible and it was –for some reason- asserting itself right then, posing another statement of ' _If he won't stop then he wouldn't really do_ _ **anything**_ _for me, he lied, I can't trust him, I_ _ **never**_ _could trust him_ '.

And Will abruptly smothered that voice, rubbing his hands over his face and exhaling harshly, dismissing the thoughts immediately and countering them with a thought that came from the true Will Graham, the one who was no longer buried under pseudo-conformity, paranoia and a shit storm of neuroses,

' _I love him the way he is, for what he is, I would never ask him to stop, I_ _ **don't**_ _want him to stop_ …' Will frowned slightly, the idea of getting married to Hannibal affixing itself permanently in his mind, making him consider how much he wanted to enjoy whatever time they'd have together, which helped him make a reasonable decision, _'…but I will go with him every time in future, because with two of us it'll increase the chances that we both come back alive.'_

Will was aware that he should let Hannibal know what he was feeling, but he wouldn't. Because if Hannibal misconstrued Will's thoughts and feelings, he might start thinking that Will no longer wanted to kill, which wasn't the case, not for the reasons Hannibal would assume anyway. Will was happy to kill, it was cathartic and euphoric and very intimate when he was doing it with Hannibal, a lot like foreplay, except bloodier. He enjoyed it, he wanted it and he didn't want either of them to give it up.

He smiled to himself and flexed the fingers of his left hand, considering his ring finger and how the platinum engagement ring had fit so perfectly. He wondered again if Hannibal would bring it along, would he make the retreat the venue for the proposal? And wondering about that made Will question what Hannibal would have needed to pack into his luggage from downstairs.

When he thought –hoped- it might the ring, Will felt contradictorily nervous and impatient that Hannibal might be bringing it along. He was sitting with his lips pursed and staring at his bare feet when he heard Hannibal walk back into the room. Will blinked away his distracted thoughts and stood up, turning to face Hannibal and quickly glancing at the older man's hands as subtly as possible. But Hannibal was only carrying a rolled up belt that he must have left downstairs at some point,

"Have you finished?" Hannibal asked as he leaned over his open suitcase, slotting the belt into a compartment before he closed the flap of the bag and started to zip it closed.

Will automatically nodded but then frowned down at his open bag, running a hand over the side of his neck as he looked over his shirts and pants, belts, underwear and socks, some toiletries,

"I think so-…ah, no, my toothbrush-…"

"We have spares, I'll get one for you." Hannibal said and was already walking toward the bathroom.

Will took the opportunity to look over Hannibal's lower half, trying to gauge if there was anything in his pockets but there was only the shape of his cell phone. He sighed quietly and irritably at his slight disappointment and waited for Hannibal, who came back quickly and walked around the bed to where Will stood, holding a plastic packaged toothbrush. He stopped at Will's side and looked down into the suitcase and Will noticed the slight raising of his eyebrow when he saw the less than organized way Will had packed.

Will managed a wry grin when Hannibal looked at him,

"For someone who spent so much time traveling and staying in motels for work, you'd think I'd have perfected the art of packing a weekend bag." he joked, looking over Hannibal's relaxed and fondly amused countenance.

Hannibal smiled at him, one side of his mouth curving up attractively, before he leaned over the case, taking the task upon himself to make sense of Will's suitcase as he commented,

"You had far more important things on your mind whenever you were called out."

Right, all of those dead bodies.

Will snorted, scratching idly at his chest,

"Yeah, and plaid doesn't really crease noticeably…so…" he smiled, also amused.

Hannibal smiled a little wider, showing a few teeth and Will's eyes drifted from his face to watching as Hannibal expertly segmented, refolded and neatened the contents of the case. Not wanting his hands to be idle and feeling a little frisky, Will slid his hand underneath Hannibal's untucked dark blue shirt, up the plane of the older man's smooth back. And tapping into his mostly unused reserve of awkward humor and abstruse flirtation abilities, Will ventured,

"You loved the plaid though," he purposely used a blithe tone as he eased his hand up along Hannibal's spine, "all of those sexy checkered shirts. I'll bet you had dirty dreams about it all the time." Will added his other hand underneath Hannibal's shirt then, moving to stand behind him and running his hands in massaging movements over Hannibal's back as he pressed his pelvis lightly against Hannibal rear.

Hannibal made a noise of amusement and stood up straight after he'd slotted the toothbrush in, glancing back at Will over his shoulder,

"In the case of you wearing nothing but a plaid shirt in such dreams..." Hannibal trailed off with a smirk, making an effort to joke along with Will's obscure humor and it was nice of him, it was quite a statement to their relationship that Hannibal would speak nonsense with him just for fun.

Will kept smiling, fond and comfortable as he slid his hands around to Hannibal's chest and now that the other man was standing up straight, he pressed his front properly to Hannibal's back, setting his chin on Hannibal's shoulder,

"Yeah, I don't doubt that I was, I mean, after that first time we met, how could you _possibly_ resist me?" Will looked at Hannibal's side profile when the man glanced at him again, going on in an amused tone, "Will Graham, a…social hazard by _any_ standard, wearing unflattering spectacles and walking around all day with uncombed hair. And that cheap aftershave too, can't forget that to go along with a creased old plaid shirt, worn chinos and scuffed shoes." he made a put upon hum of delight, "And to top it all off, I had the audacity to be rude to you for **no** reason, whatsoever." Will dipped his head and sighed out a quiet laugh against the back of Hannibal's shoulder, his warm breath clinging to the fine cotton of his shirt,

"Tell me Doctor Lecter, why didn't you just come after me?" he slid his arms around Hannibal's chest, properly hugging him from behind, "I'd given you all the reason you needed to kill me in the first two minutes of meeting you, it's…it's a wonder…that you didn't kill me the first chance you got. You could have eaten my tongue for dinner that same night." Will was morbidly amused by his own words, "Or did you just really like my…swag?" he added in a mumble.

Hannibal chuckled, low and quiet as he slowly turned around, Will loosening the circle of his arms so the older man could face him. Hannibal held Will's face then, so that Will would look at him in the eye. He looked genuinely amused and deeply fond as he regarded Will at close proximity,

"Firstly, on the day I met you, you were in fact _not_ wearing plaid." Hannibal informed him. Will frowned, the unasked question of 'really?' hanging between them and Hannibal nodded once, his eyes moving from Will's eyes to his lips and back, "You were wearing a vintage green, brushed twill shirt -…"

"…faded green…" Will translated in a mumble.

"…and you smelled of cafeteria coffee, chalk dust and dogs, more than just your aftershave."

"…definitely a keeper, huh…" Will mumbled, looking at Hannibal's smirking mouth, inches from his own.

"Hm…more than, actually." Hannibal stroked his thumbs over Will's ears, "And while I can't say I had any sexual thoughts about you at that time or in the immediate months that followed," he leaned in and kissed Will's lips softly, the younger man's eyes sliding closed and halfway open again when it ended, "my first thought when you were so unnecessarily rude to me that day was far from any consideration to murder you." He finished softly.

Despite the tentative –and bizarrely- affectionate context in which they were speaking, Will found himself pressing for further candidness by offering some of his own,

"You were thinking…that you wanted to pick me apart slowly, piece by piece…" he said quietly, holding eye contact, "…until I was either overrun by my darkest fantasies, by my…shocking associations and appalling dreams, unable to resist giving into them, or…" he smirked crookedly, "…until I was too crazy and too broken to be made any sense of." Will knew, it was an observation made long ago.

And it could have gone either way, really.

Hannibal had wanted to play with him like a brand new, limited edition toy doll, until the carefully laid paint covering his plastic shell would have started to fade and flake off, until grime would have started to gather in the lines and joints and sockets and scratches, until his arms, legs and head would have eventually popped off and he would have no longer been any fun to use or worth anything to anyone…until the novelty had worn off.

It hadn't though.

Hannibal nodded in response, honest about it, and then he absently wet his lips and spoke lowly,

"Although, when you told me that you didn't find me interesting, I had considered what you would have looked like with your jaw dislocated and my thermal flask jammed down your throat." he said it almost like a caress and Will, knowing that Hannibal wasn't just saying that and had probably very literally considered doing that to him at the time, was really very fucked up, because he was pretty turned on right then all the same.

Will laughed quietly, and then his smile waned and his mouth settled slightly open, his teeth just shy of touching as he looked over Hannibal's face and slowly frowned,

"I didn't though…find you interesting…" he admitted seriously and Hannibal raised a curious eyebrow, "…but I lied about when that changed. It...it didn't happen after my time at the Baltimore institute," he was looking at Hannibal's mouth now, "it actually happened mere…minutes after I initially said it, when you told me how Jack saw me, and then you told me…how you saw me." he slowly lifted his gaze to look into Hannibal's eyes.

Hannibal's lips curved into a cryptic smirk as he brought his fingers to the temples of Will's glasses and slid them off his face, before placing them on the clothes in the open suitcase behind them. When he looked back to Will, he slipped one arm around Will's waist and raised his other hand to brush his knuckles under Will's chin,

"You've turned out to be far more than just that mongoose, Will," his tone was slightly gravelly, "on that observation, I have long since eaten my words." he wet his lips, staring intently at Will's mouth.

"And many…many people too." Will added with a renewed grin, his arms still around Hannibal's torso as he leaned into Hannibal's hold and considered another question he'd never thought to ask before. He'd been feeling a little raw around the subject of their relationship for the past week, the engagement ring having made it apparent to him that there could be more and that they could be more as a couple. They could still be closer, there was more to know, more to have and take and share.

"When…" Will paused and swallowed lightly, forming the question in his mind before just blurting it out, "…when did it start…for you, when did I start to change you?" Will asked vaguely, expecting Hannibal would know what he was actually asking about. And he did, his smile fading slowly and Will watched as Hannibal considered an answer to that, or at least, he was considering how Will might feel at hearing it.

"It occurred to me…" he started, pressing his lips together for a moment and then parting them again before he continued, "…that I had grown attached to you, beyond just your mind…during the first time that I was denied access to seeing you." he swallowed slowly and lowered his gaze to Will's chin, "I realized then…that I wanted your existence and mortality…to coincide with mine." he said quietly, the sincere words heavily accented.

And Will's eyes widened just slightly, his eyebrows raising a fraction, because that sounded an awful lot like Hannibal was saying he wanted to spend his life with Will,

'… _until death do us part_.' he immediately thought, feeling tense in his shoulders and warm in his face even though he doubted a proposal would happen right then. The moment was far too informal, and also, the inescapable memory of what had followed Will's time in the BSHCI, of the massacre that took place in Hannibal's kitchen because of Will's rejection, definitely did not set the best ambiance for a 'Will you marry me?' moment.

So Will huffed out a laugh, a few short amused snorts as he shook his head, intending to lighten the mood,

"Only you, Hannibal, could fall in love with someone who'd been institutionalized in a mental fa-…" and he abruptly cut himself off when he realized what he'd said.

Will hadn't mentioned the word _love_ in the context of Hannibal's feelings for him since they'd been together, mostly because he never wanted to see hints of amusement or subtle incredulity in Hannibal's face that would let Will know for sure that Hannibal didn't, or rather couldn't, be in love with him.

He was getting too distracted though, having slipped up like that.

"…uh, a…a facility for the criminally insane." he finished haltingly, avoiding eye contact and instead looking at Hannibal's cheek. Hannibal would know what he was thinking though, he seemed to know without even having to try most of the time, they'd become _that_ close, all of Will's forts long since having been disassembled. He hoped that the older man would let it go though, "W-what time is the flight tom-…"

"Will…" Hannibal cut him off firmly but quietly and Will looked into his eyes instinctively, noticing that Hannibal didn't look amused or condescending or mocking, just serious and thoughtful, "…do you need me to say it?" he asked softly and Will's breath stuck in his throat, his face twitching into a frown,

"Wha-…" he felt like he'd forgotten how to breathe.

Hannibal tilted his head, leaning in closer and placing his hand splayed over the front of Will's throat lightly as he spoke in a silvery tone,

"Would it make it real for you, Will, to hear me say that I l-…"

…-but Will kissed him quickly, to stop him from saying those three little words, because just the idea of Hannibal saying it was upsetting and exhilarating.

Upsetting because it'd probably be a lie in more ways than truth, but exhilarating because it'd be the first time Hannibal would say it and actually _want_ to mean it.

The kiss started as a press of silencing lips, but became fervent in the minutes that followed. Will moved his mouth against Hannibal's in wide parting and with deep laps of his tongue and Hannibal returned the kiss with equal desire. When they eventually drew apart, Will dipped his head and touched his forehead to Hannibal's cheek,

"No, you don't have to say anything…it's real, I **know** it's real." he sighed out with his eyes closed.

"It is." Hannibal conceded in response.

His tone was gruffer and whatever he was feeling was enough to make him swallow tensely…before he pressed a gentle kiss to Will's temple.

* * *

Later, after they'd finished packing and had everything prepared for the trip, they climbed into bed, cast into mild darkness but for the windows letting in the half-moon light, and Hannibal kissed Will for a long while in the blue-white glow of it, starting at his mouth before moving on to lavish the same attention over the expanse of Will's body, Hannibal stripping clothing away as he went, until Will was naked. Until they both were.

They took their time getting there, neither was in a hurry.

And when it was over they kissed for a while still, even when Hannibal had settled himself at Will's side and their breathing had returned to normal, sweat drying on their skin, Hannibal continued to lavish Will's mouth with delicate and intense attention, until Will's lips burned, his mouth felt dry and he could barely keep his eyes open.

Will fell asleep close to Hannibal as he often did, their bodies, their bare skin, touching in intimate places. And with his face nestled against the front of Hannibal's throat, Will was lulled to sleep with the scent of Hannibal lacing his senses with every breath.


	4. Wine On Blood

"The act of love greatly resembles torture or surgery."  
― Charles Baudelaire

* * *

 _Friday – 16 Sep 2022 – 1.19 PM_

Will wasn't fond of flying, and not because _he_ was afraid of the plane crashing or anything, but because he was always able to sense how many _other_ people were. At least it wasn't a long flight they were on, just about an hour.

Presently, Hannibal had just taken a sip of his chilled bottled water at the same time as Will dropped three aspirin into his palm and tossed them into his mouth. He'd intended to dry swallow the pills but Hannibal offered him the bottle of water and Will accepted it, taking a drink of the cool sparkling mineral water to wash down the tablets. He pursed his lips after he swallowed and took a breath in through his nose, holding onto the bottle in order to give his hands something to do.

They were seated in business club class, Hannibal in the aisle seat, and even though it wasn't full in the cabin Will's headache was still significant, so maybe it wasn't entirely just because of the people around them.

He was pressing his fingers into his eyes when Hannibal spoke,

"Perhaps we should have driven." he said quietly, looking over Will who was tense in his seat, legs tucked back and ankles crossed despite the leg room, his shoulders slightly hunched. Will shook his head,

"Driving for…what?" he frowned, "Almost five hours, instead of taking a short flight…it'd be ridiculous." he mumbled and then rubbed a hand over his cheek, his trim beard rasping softly.

"For your comfort-…"

"Yes, I know," Will cut him off and then sighed shortly, "and thank you…" he added, looking at Hannibal and offering a quick, wavy smile, "…but no, it would have been unnecessary." he restated.

Hannibal only nodded in response and then turned his attention away, silence falling between them, filled only by quiet conversations happening around the cabin and the quiet hum of the plane's turbines.

Will looked down into his lap as he fiddled with the glass bottle, picking at the clear label.

It had been a short morning for him. Hannibal, as usual, had been up at least two hours before Will, having already made a light but sufficient breakfast for them both, packed the car, been showered and dressed in a slim fit black button down shirt with fine pinstripes, a pair of dark Italian designer jeans and black leather chelsea boots, perfectly put together.

Will had stumbled downstairs eventually in naught but a pair of hastily pulled on pajama pants to cover his nudity, having finally been woken up by the sound of his cell phone's nagging snooze alarm. Their flight wasn't early so Hannibal had decided to let him sleep in, but Will felt irritable with himself for being so inefficient. Hannibal was unbothered by it though, he'd smiled pleasantly when Will had walked into the kitchen half dressed, his hair in a state and still rubbing at his sleep puffy eyes and he'd pecked Will on the lips with that same smile, before Will had fallen into a chair at the kitchen table, where Hannibal had served him breakfast with strong coffee just the way he liked it.

And after an unorganized morning spent wondering what Hannibal must think of him, Will's day was off to a shitty start. He wouldn't have usually felt that way, because the morning hadn't exactly been out of the norm for them, but once again, the damn engagement ring had Will overthinking everything. And that morning, as he'd sat at the kitchen table chewing on a mouthful of what he knew was a delicious omelet, he'd barely tasted it, because he'd been wallowing in the insecurity he'd felt not long after waking up, and the subsequent personal reevaluation that followed, of whether he was good enough to and for Hannibal.

Serial killer detail aside, Hannibal was like the perfect partner…lover, boyfriend, husband… **husband** …

And Will, well, he was less of a mess than he had been, but next to Hannibal, less was not more.

He'd hoped to feel better after eating, and then still hoped after he'd taken a shower, cleaned up and dressed. Will had made sure he was casual but not sloppy, because he needed to look good next to Hannibal, so he wore a light gray Henley shirt and a pair of black designer jeans –because Hannibal didn't buy anything that wasn't branded- with a pair of black leather chukka boots. He'd run a comb through his hair more than the usual one time before he got all of his last minute stuff together for the trip and had met Hannibal downstairs when he was ready to go. He still hadn't felt any better though, continuing to be irritated –with himself- because he'd wanted to wake up earlier for a specific reason, having intended to sneak down to the cellar to check on whether the ring was still there or not. And not waking up early had made that impossible and had just ruined his entire morning in the end.

So on top of his internal self-doubting episode during breakfast, Will also had no idea whether Hannibal had even brought the ring along which meant he'd be completely clueless as to whether Hannibal intended to propose to him that weekend.

Will took another drink of the water and then glanced at Hannibal, who appeared to be deep in thought about something, his head inclined slightly and his eyes downcast. Will chose not to interrupt the older man, instead he turned his head to look out the window at the clouds that stretched on for miles…

…his mind drifting through several thoughts; hoping his dogs would be okay in the fancy dog hotel, wondering how their trip North would go, considering all of the ways the retreat might turn out to be a bad idea…

He wasn't sure how long he sat distantly staring out of the small window, but when he felt a hand on his knee, Will started. He was lucky that the water in the bottle he held was halfway empty or he'd have spilled it into his lap from how abruptly he'd jerked, so harshly that his sunglasses slid out of his hair and landed in his lap after knocking against the bottle.

Will hadn't been so jumpy in years.

Will clenched his jaw in frustration when he realized how undue his reaction had been and he glanced from his knee, on which there was no longer a hand, to Hannibal's lap and then he tracked his eyes upward to look apologetically into Hannibal's face. He had his contact-lenses in, would for most of the weekend, but for the first time in years, Will missed the comfort of his spectacles sitting on his nose and serving as a buffer between him and direct eye contact.

Hannibal's face was not guarded, so Will saw the displeased curiosity in his eyes as clearly as he noted the concern in the shallow crease between Hannibal's eyebrows. Will's reaction just then had been reminiscent of when they'd first been on the run in America, and Will had still been nervous and unfamiliar with being casually touched, often having tensed up or shrugged a touch off, or been caught unawares and having flinched away.

But they were so far past that that Will actually frowned at himself right then, not understanding the regression.

It was as if he were slowly turning back into the man who'd often felt wary and self-conscious and insecure around Hannibal while still –always- craving his presence and his touch and his closeness.

"Are you alright?" Hannibal asked rather evenly, considering Will could tell he was upset.

Will nodded and absently glanced around,

"I'm sorry, yes…I…" he trailed off when he noticed that the couple across the aisle from them were glancing over, looking judgmental and forward and amused, and Will also noticed two of the air hostesses serving champagne and coffee further up had noticed his reaction too and were looking curious.

That was when it really sunk in how it must look to the people staring, the fact that he was so jumpy to such a subtle touch, having popped pills, sitting and staring out of the window and looking miserable and uncomfortable…avoiding eye contact with Hannibal and leaning away from him in his seat.

Hannibal was definitely irritated by their rude stares but probably also by the ideas he –and Will too- knew were popping up in the onlookers heads. People often stared at them, Will knew that, he saw it all the time when they were out together and even earlier when they'd been walking through the airport. But never out of recognition, mostly just curiosity and sometimes disapproval.

He didn't know how people just _knew_ they were a couple, but it was somehow obvious to everyone who saw them. Maybe it was in the way they walked side by side, the way Hannibal would occasionally touch Will with a hand on his back or his waist –or just to touch him for the sake of touching. It could have been the way Hannibal looked at him or the way Will looked at Hannibal, their easy familiarity, their comfort around one another.

Whatever it was, people stared, and whether it was because of their obvious age difference, or that they looked good together, or because Hannibal was so obviously out of Will's league, or maybe some people saw it the other way around, Will didn't know, but people always stared.

And they all had their own way of viewing things, depending on stereotyping or their prejudices, and right then, whatever they'd been thinking when he and Hannibal had been seated together had either been tainted or confirmed by Will's behavior. With his empathy, Will was able to perceive their ugly thoughts, the unpleasant things they were thinking because he had reacted so uncomfortably to Hannibal's light touch.

Hannibal removed his sunglasses from where he'd hooked them on the topmost fastened button of his shirt and he placed them on the table pulled out from the seat in front of him with a soft clack, some of his hair falling over his forehead when he leaned forward.

When he settled back into his seat, he sighed softly and crossed one leg over the other, glancing at Will briefly,

"If you've changed your mind about the retreat," Will was already shaking his head, "then we can take the first flight back once we arrive in Málaga."

"…n-no, no Han…Hannes," he needed to keep their names straight in public, "I, I haven't changed my mind…" he said quietly and took his sunglasses off his lap, placing them on the wide flat armrest space between them and then he placed the water bottle into the cubby space below it. Will rubbed a hand over his face when he realized he had no explanation he could give for his behavior. And from his stalling, Hannibal seemed to have picked up that there was nothing else forthcoming because he sighed again, leaning his head back and not looking at Will.

Will noticed one of the hostesses were coming closer to them, across the aisle and two seats up ahead. He took a breath and waited for her to pass them, Hannibal declining her offer of a beverage before Will shook his head 'no' as well. Once she'd moved on to the next people a few seats back, Will placed his hand over Hannibal's, linking their fingers as he brought it from the older man's lap into his own,

"I, I'm not…feeling well, my head…" he glanced at Hannibal and then looked away, clenching his jaw and trying to get his shit together, "…I'll be fine, I'm sorry…" he said in a rush of breath and forced himself over the small mental hump that should never have come up, turning and looking at Hannibal properly in the eye, "…don't, don't be-…"

"I'm not being anything besides concerned." Hannibal said quietly, squeezing his hand and Will nodded unevenly, licking his lips, and then, quite impulsively –due to the new Will battling the twitchy old Will and _winning_ -, he leaned over the armrest toward Hannibal for a kiss...

They didn't kiss in public as a general rule…or at least that's just how it'd been between them all along.

Light touches and gestures, smiles and standing a little closer was all acceptable, but never kissing.

And in that moment that he leaned over, Will didn't know if it had always been his subconscious rule or Hannibal's that had kept them from doing it, but it no longer mattered in that split second when he hung himself out on a very thin wire, because Hannibal rebuffing him was a very real possibility. But Will had already gone eighty percent of the way. So embarrassment was inevitable if Hannibal didn't choose to kiss him…

…but Hannibal didn't take advantage of Will's vulnerability, he hadn't ever again since the night they'd killed Francis Dolarhyde.

And Hannibal leaned in so easily, so naturally, to meet Will's kiss that he had to wonder why it'd never happened before. It felt freeing to kiss Hannibal in public, to subtly slide his tongue against Hannibal's bottom lip, even if it was only for a brief moment, a few seconds, before they both drew back to an acceptable but still intimate distance.

Will was still partially leaning into Hannibal's space and squeezing their fingers together and he felt instantly better with some of his confidence restored. He smiled slightly, licking his lips and he even didn't care that the hostess had walked back up the aisle while they'd been in their quick lip lock.

Hannibal smiled too, a subtle curving of his lips, but in his eyes Will saw how pleased he was and Will felt that kissing Hannibal in front of staring strangers was like a new door being opened between them that had previously been locked. And it made sense to Will to start unlocking any closed doors that remained, because if Hannibal was to be his husband, Will wanted everything on the table.

* * *

 _Friday – 16 Sep 2022 – 2.30 PM_

The Villa for the couples retreat was beautiful.

But not in the touristy getaway, overly exorbitant sort of way, it was more welcoming than that, cozy even, despite being large and spacious and it had everything necessary with just a touch of extra luxury.

The private villa they were staying in was above sea level much like their home in Alicante, and it was surrounded by tropical gardens and a view of the ocean that was just as stunning as well. The villa also had an infinity pool on its patio/balcony, which complimented the ocean horizon perfectly and added a sense of extravagance to the place.

From what Will understood from the brochure, the three couples had private access to all of the extracurricular activities available; the tennis court, spa, gym, Jacuzzi, library, sauna and so on.

The staff person who escorted Will and Hannibal to the villa when they arrived was friendly and wished them a good stay before leaving. When they walked inside the villa through the open main door, Hannibal announced their arrival audibly into the large lounge area as Will looked around, both men setting their bags down at their feet. The décor was white tiles and earth colored walls with high ceilings and hanging lights and the furniture was a mixture of contemporary and Spanish cultural design.

The brochure had said there were three double bedrooms, all of which had en-suites. The living area was spacious with a built in bar, a flat screen TV mounted onto the wall and sliding glass doors that led out onto the large balcony area where the pool was. The balcony was furnished with daybeds, a variety of garden chairs and tables and exotic plants and Will just hoped that the kitchen was up to a decent standard since the place was self-catering.

But overall, the villa seemed very secluded and very comfortable.

Juan and Isa were already there when Hannibal and Will arrived and they came in from outside to exchange greetings. Will hadn't seen the couple in a few weeks, and he was comfortable enough with Isa to return her hug and kiss on the cheek when she reached for him and then for Hannibal next. They were people Will liked and enjoyed the company of.

"Isa and I have chosen our room, there are two left and we figured we'd treat the whole thing as first come, first serve." Juan explained after they'd all greeted one another.

It made sense and seemed fair, any one of the three couples could have checked in early that morning, it had been up to them if they decided to get there early or not.

"Of course, I chose the bedroom with the biggest bathtub, you all know how I love long pampering baths." Isa was smiling and she looked a little buzzed, the margarita she had in her hand was already halfway finished and it was obvious that she'd started the party early.

Hannibal had his standard friendly smile on his face,

"Of course," he agreed with her kindly, "then we shall select our room. Ethan…" Hannibal addressed Will and said man turned to face him from where he'd been observing the hanging lights. He'd gotten used to responding to his fake name over the years. Hannibal gestured toward the doorway leading to the hall, "…I'll leave it up to you."

Will had been following the conversation absently and he nodded before he grabbed the handle of his suitcase, pushing it in so he could carry the bag instead of rolling it.

"Can I make you drinks in the mean time?" Juan asked as they started to walk away.

Will stopped walking and immediately responded,

"Whiskey, please." he was aware that he couldn't get drunk, because if he got drunk he might slip up and call Hannibal by his real name, but he would pace himself so he was at least relaxed.

"Sure, I'll make you a Manhattan." Juan decided with a grin and didn't give Will a chance to say anything else, "and you Hannes?"

"Red wine, please." Hannibal answered, looking amused from Will to Juan.

"Ah, of course," Juan quickly walked over to the bar and he looked at what was there, "Let's see, _Dal Forno Valpolicella, 2007_ or _Leoville Barton, 2000_?"

It was imperceptible to anyone else, but Will knew Hannibal wasn't pleased with either option,

"The Bordeaux, thanks." Hannibal said evenly.

Juan nodded and picked up the _Leoville Barton_ bottle just before Will and Hannibal left to choose a room, going up the stairs that the hallway led to.

Will looked over both of the available bedrooms and despite the gaudy red and white coloring of the more contemporary room, Will liked that it had a large wall of windows which let in lots of natural light and it didn't feel like a claustrophobic space. The view was all landscape and no one would be able to see into the bedroom from outside, so it was the room he preferred.

"Is this room alright?" he asked Hannibal as they stood just inside the door. Hannibal was surveying the space as well. Will looked at the bed when Hannibal did, it was more or less in the center of the room, with a free standing square, red upholstered headboard and Will liked that the bed faced the windows, there was something about the layout of it that appealed to him.

Looking at the bed from the back of the low headboard, Will could see himself on that bed from the angle where they stood right then. Hannibal would be lying on his back, not visible due to the headboard but Will could see himself, moving on top of Hannibal, up and down, riding the older man with his hands braced on the headboard…in the day time was an especially appealing thought, with the curtains open and the sun on his back, making him work up a sweat.

Similar to how they did it at home.

Will blinked out of that train of thought when he felt his cock stir and he walked further inside to place his bag down, decision made. Hannibal did likewise, as Will had expected he would,

"It'll do fine." he finally said and he sounded sincere enough.

Will nodded, accepting that, before he followed Hannibal out of the bedroom and back downstairs to join the Cantillo's.

* * *

Isa was a tall woman, she was more or less Will's height when barefoot, with reddish-brown hair that was styled in a precise bob that aligned with her sharp jaw and she had dark green eyes and nicely tanned skin. She was lean and very feminine, the way she talked and sat and gestured, just the way she carried herself in general was entirely ladylike. Her age was apparent mostly in the fine wrinkles at the front of her neck and on her hands, but otherwise, for a woman who'd turned fifty a few weeks back –when Will had last seen her- she looked damn good.

Juan, who was more or less a year younger than Hannibal at 52, complimented her by also looking good for his age. He was wrinklier in places on his face though, not just his hands and neck and his hair was almost completely silver. Also he was taller than Isa, even a little taller than Hannibal, and lean on the side of skinny in build.

Will often looked at them and then wondered how odd – or not- he looked with Hannibal. He was almost 43, or as Isa called him, 'a young 42', because when he was healthy and happy it apparently added youthfulness to his features. Hannibal too, looked great for his age, he was healthily lean and fit, with impressive strength no one would expect him to have. His hair was an attractive mixture of silver, blonde and brown and his exotic bloodline and healthy lifestyle minimalized aging in his face and body too. He was aging well and Will knew he would continue to, inside and out. At 53 years old, Hannibal was still svelte and attractive. Isa had once said Hannibal was ' _un buen partido_ ', which basically translated as saying he was 'a good catch'.

Isa had also told Will she thought that Hannibal was damn lucky to have landed 'a young, _chico guapo'_ like him.

And her saying that had made the stigma attached to older men who dated younger people bother Will more than it should have. Because while Isa didn't judge him, Will knew that when most other people looked at him, they likely thought he was only with Hannibal for his money and status, as the case usually was when younger men got involved with older wealthy men. It's what most people –like the people on the plane- assumed more often than not, and he really didn't like.

Feeling that way was probably the only reason Will forced himself not to be hypocritical when he met Adoncia De Villafranca and her husband.

* * *

 _Friday – 16 Sep 2022 – 3.21 PM_

Hannibal, Isa, Juan and himself were standing outside of the air-conditioned villa on the large balcony, it was the middle of the afternoon and they were catching up with one another as they nursed their drinks.

Presently, Will had told Juan that he'd enjoyed the Manhattan drink, and Juan was explaining to Will what was mixed in the whiskey cocktail. When he was done, Isa asked how their flight had been and only then did Will's feelings of upset over what happened on the plane rear up again, the negative thoughts souring the buzz of lingering horniness that he'd been experiencing from when they'd chosen a room earlier.

Together though, the two feelings gave Will an idea of how to make up for it with Hannibal, and because he'd become so comfortable around Isa and Juan, he found himself feeling incredibly bold about it too.

Juan and Isa were telling him and Hannibal some funny story about an experience their eldest daughter had had on a flight and Will managed just enough patience to wait until the story came to an end, everyone smiling and laughing, before he looked at Hannibal and decided he didn't want to wait anymore.

Will reached out and took Hannibal's glass of wine from him before setting both of their glasses down on the garden table just behind them.

All three of them were looking at Will with curious amusement but he just ignored the heat rising to his face and cast his usual propriety aside as he slipped his hand into Hannibal's and tugged lightly, taking a step away,

"You guys are going to have to excuse us for…" he grinned when Hannibal started to follow him toward the patio doors to go back inside, "…maybe fifteen minutes." he announced, feeling a blooming of heat in his belly already.

Isa immediately dissolved into a surprisingly refined fit of blushing giggles and Juan was grinning with one eyebrow raised as he watched them,

"Only fifteen?" he quipped impishly, putting his arm around his amused wife's waist.

Will had been walking sideways, aware of Hannibal's surprised, confused and heated gaze never leaving him, and he slowed down at Juan's comment to give Hannibal a brazenly risqué once over, his eyes lingering in naughty places before he looked over at Juan and Isa with a rakish grin,

"For what I have in mind, fifteen minutes has been my record," he said honestly, Hannibal raising an eyebrow at him, but Will bravely went ahead and tiptoed over the line of decency, "but I'm gonna' put my neck into it and aim for ten." he tugged on Hannibal's hand then and led them quickly inside, blushing furiously at his own forwardness.

He heard Juan catcall loudly and Isa say ' _vas, muchacho_ ' as he dragged Hannibal through the lounge area, the hall and upstairs to their chosen room.

Hannibal only spoke once they were in the bedroom and Will had closed and locked the door,

"That was very ill-mannered and crude of you." he mumbled, standing at the back of the red headboard with a questioning look on his face as Will came toward him.

Will was too turned on to care about being lectured on his manners right then, so instead he just kissed Hannibal and at the same time he grabbed the older man's belt with both hands and undid it quickly and roughly, pushing Hannibal back to lean against the headboard as he pulled the leather strap from the buckle.

Will drew back from the deep, wet kiss when Hannibal's hands came up to slide into his hair and he grinned at the older man, popping the buttons of Hannibal's jeans open as he said,

"Ill-mannered yes, but crude, Hannibal, would have been me telling them that I _desperately_ needed…" Will kissed Hannibal again, quick and with a scrape of teeth as he started to push Hannibal's jeans down just enough for accessibility, adding in a rasp, "…to get on my knees and suck your cock."

Hannibal's response was a low, throaty growl, an intimidating sound that made Will shiver and then he kissed Will hard and deep for a jaw clicking long minute, before letting Will drop to his knees to do exactly what he'd said he needed to.

* * *

When they came back downstairs about twenty minutes later –Will having spent only twelve minutes on his knees, which meant he was improving- the third couple had arrived, Eurico and Adoncia De Villafranca.

The newly arrived couple was standing in the lounge area, still exchanging greetings with Juan and Isa when Will, followed by Hannibal, came around the corner from the hall and walked in to join them.

Will stopped a few feet away, seeing their additional weekend company for the first time as Hannibal stepped past him with an extended hand,

"Doctor De Villafranca, good to see you again." he was saying, taking Adoncia's hand in his own as a Count would take a lady's and making a subtle bow, as was Hannibal's way with women.

She smiled and blushed as he held her hand, delighted as most women were by Hannibal,

"Please, Doctor Kask, call me Adoncia." she predictably said.

"Then you must, please, call me Hannes." Hannibal predictably responded.

She nodded, still smiling as she turned to the old man standing at her side and Hannibal turned to him as well, extending his hand again,

"And you must be the _other_ Doctor De Villafranca." Hannibal said charmingly, always so perfectly prepared for anything even as Will stood there feeling awkward as all hell with his erection only just subsided, his lips still slightly red and the taste of Hannibal's come lingering on the back of his tongue.

Isa appeared at his side just then and handed him another Manhattan as she bumped shoulders with him.

And God, was her timing impeccable. He looked adoringly at her as he took the proffered drink and she smiled knowingly back at him.

"You may call me Eurico, Doctor Kask." Eurico smiled a bit tightly, the corners of his eyes and the skin under his ears wrinkling deeply, because he was **old** …like over 70 or something.

"Hannes." Hannibal offered and by that point Will had taken a gulp of his drink and was licking whiskey laced alcohol from his lips.

The attention had been on him only partially before, but now they were all looking at him because Hannibal had turned to him with the intention of making introductions,

"Ethan, Doctors Adoncia and Eurico De Villafranca," he gestured to the mismatched couple.

Will took a step forward, he knew what he had to do and he did it, shaking Eurico's –rough, wrinkled, veiny- hand first,

"Hi, Ethan Gerard." he said with a not overly noticeable, but still tense and forced smile.

Eurico nodded shortly, looking vaguely uncomfortable, and Will guessed that the man had noticed him the second they'd come into the room, aware that they'd come from upstairs and he had probably noticed the slightly dazed state Will was in, because his handshake was hesitant and he wouldn't meet Will's eyes directly. He was probably wondering where Will's hands had been.

That didn't mean he was homophobic, but Will took note of his discomfort anyway.

He shook Adoncia's hand next –normal hand in hand, no gentlemanly fanfare- and while Will hadn't really looked properly at her before, he certainly did after he'd taken her hand into his, her slender and smooth and small hand…and damn, she was **young**. Much younger than her husband. Younger than Will even. She was probably in her early thirties, but she was a 'young 30 something' if that was the case.

That was when Will had to remind himself not to be hypocritical about older men with younger partners, but even though he was able to dismiss his judgment, Will couldn't help looking Adoncia over with raised eyebrows.

She was petite and undoubtedly attractive, but the word cute specifically came to mind as a quicker association for Will. She had long, elbow length, cinnamon brown hair that was styled perfectly into tangling waves at the ends and her skin was fairer than Isa's but darker than Will's. Her eyes were almond shaped and dark brown in color, done up with smoky makeup, her nose was small with a round tip and she had a pretty, quirky mouth painted in a soft red-brown lipstick.

She was shorter than everyone else in the room, Will estimated that without her white strappy heels she'd be half a head shorter than himself. The dress she wore was tight and a crisp white, fitted perfectly to her subtle curves with a length that reached just shy of halfway down her thighs. It had elbow length lace sleeves and a low, round neckline that showed off the swell of cleavage that her breasts formed inside what was likely a push-up bra. And her smile was soft and sweet with straight white, veneer teeth.

As they separated their hands, her long manicured nails scraped Will's palm lightly,

"It's nice to meet you, Ethan. Isa and Juan have told me many things about you, all good, I promise." she said in her pleasant, lilting, accented English as she tilted her head and some of her hair fell over her shoulder.

Will swallowed tensely and nodded, clenching his hand into a fist once before shoving it into his jeans pocket,

"I'm sure. It's, uh, nice to meet you too." he managed a tight smile.

"Drinks, my friends!" Juan said, thankfully interrupting, and he was all grins as he poured fresh drinks for Will –again- and Hannibal and then retrieved two new glasses for Eurico and Adoncia from behind the bar.

Isa clucked her tongue at him,

"They must take their bags to their room first, Juan." she said with a blithe smile, tucking her arm into Will's and tightening her grip abruptly…and _that_ was when Will realized he'd been _**staring**_ at Adoncia…

…and that Eurico, Adoncia **and Hannibal** had noticed.

Will's stomach lurched quite unpleasantly and it felt as if a solid rock settled there as he dropped his gaze down to the tiled floor and held his breath.

' _Jesus Christ…'_ he thought in a mental panic _, '…what am I doing?'_ he truly had no idea.

Will didn't think he'd been checking her out, after all, he hadn't looked at a woman that way in years, not since Hannibal had first kissed him. But that being said…Will had noticed how pretty her mouth was, how shapely her breasts were and how soft her thighs looked. So what was that if not checking her out?

' _ **Fuck**_ _.'_

"Yes, yes…" Juan acknowledged his wife's words, shrugging as he handed Hannibal and –after a nudge- Will their drinks and then he gestured to Adoncia and Eurico, "…go then, and when you're done I'll prepare your drinks, **and then** ," he made a big gesture with his hands towards Hannibal, "the master chef has offered to cook our meals for us this weekend and treat all of our palates to his fine, _fine_ cuisine." he was smiling at Hannibal, who inclined his head to politely accept the compliment and the priorly discussed responsibility.

Adoncia looked eager,

"Oooh, yes, I have heard a lot about your fantastic cooking, Hannes, what will you be making for us?" and she sounded genuinely excited. Even to Will's empathy she felt sincere.

That time, he forced his gaze away from her pretty face once she was done speaking and he felt nauseous for having to.

Will looked instead at Hannibal, who was looking at Juan,

"That depends entirely on what the kitchen is stocked with." he said before sipping his wine.

Will gulped from his own drink and Isa squeezed his arm tighter in silent…support? He wasn't sure.

Juan beamed at Hannibal and winked, gesturing from his wife to Hannibal with the box of cigarettes he'd taken out of his pocket,

"Isa and I made sure you'll have everything you need and even extra, Hannes."

Hannibal continued to smile,

"Then I will be sure to make proper use of whatever is at my disposal."

Will's nausea was getting worse as he stood there in the midst of small talk. He could smell Isa's feminine perfume mixing with Adoncia's and it was aggravating his senses and fueling a dark irritation in him for the fact that the smells and alcohol had made it so he could no longer smell Hannibal's cologne or taste Hannibal's come on his tongue.

He felt so confused with his thoughts and feelings so conflicted that his head started to ache again at an alarming rate. Will hadn't had headaches or anxiety like what he was experiencing right then in years, it was unsettling.

"Let's go darling, we'll return and have that drink." Eurico said to Adoncia in clear English, only just lightly accented and he placed his wrinkly hand on her lightly curved waist to lead her away.

Hannibal looked at Will then and he met Hannibal's eyes, grounding himself with Hannibal's gaze as he often did when he wasn't feeling well and the older man knew instantly that something was wrong, he always did.

"Your head?" he enquired as he stepped closer, Isa loosening her grip on Will as Hannibal took his cheek in one hand and looked into Will's face, pressing his other hand to Will's forehead as the younger man nodded, "I'll fetch you aspirin," he told Will, lightly stroking the younger man's ear once before relinquishing his hold and glancing at Isa, "Isa, if you would, please fetch Ethan some room temperature water?" he requested.

Isa assented and quickly left Will's side to go to the kitchen, Hannibal walking away as well to fetch the aspirin from the bedroom as Juan took Will's drink from him,

"Are you alright, Ethan?" he asked, concern in his voice as he placed the hand in which he held an unlit cigarette on Will's shoulder. Will nodded, wishing Hannibal would come back and put his warm hands back on him,

"I'll be alright, just some days…I have headaches…" he trailed off from the lie as Isa came back and handed him a bottle of water. He had headaches so rarely, not some days, **hardly ever**. He was getting worried.

Will took the water with a mumbled thanks and opened the seal, taking a gulp from it.

He wasn't sure what the fuck was wrong with him, but he doubted the aspirin would help.

* * *

 _Friday – 16 Sep 2022 – 6.41 PM_

It was easy to sit mostly in silence, only talking occasionally while the other four all exchanged stories.

Night had fallen but the sky was only just about dark. They were all out on the balcony, sitting on the daybeds and chairs while they talked and drank cocktails, socializing like normal people did and it was weird but Will was managing. Isa was pacing herself with her drinks, as was Juan, while Adoncia seemed quick to get drunk but was not shy to keep going. She'd already had two margaritas which left her giggly and glossy eyed but she was presently halfway through her third. Eurico only drank imported German beer apparently, so he'd brought his own booze and was drinking at a moderate pace, and Will was sticking with water. But he'd been upgraded to sparkling water with pineapple slices in it courtesy of Hannibal. It was actually pretty tasty, Will thought he might start putting pineapple in his water at home too.

Hannibal was not in their company since he was in the kitchen preparing dinner, and there were delicious smells filtering outside from whatever he was cooking.

Adoncia was the first to comment on it,

"Wow, whatever he's making in there, it smells _amazing_." she glanced at the patio doors, "Even our cook doesn't make anything that smells so incredible." she added, speaking against the sugary rim of her glass before sipping from her drink. Eurico was sitting beside her on the daybed leaning back on his arm, his legs were crossed and in his hand he held his beer, the bottom of the bottle resting on his thigh. He didn't comment on what his wife said, but he did uncomfortably glance at Will, who sat on one of the steel patio chairs, just to the side of the other daybed that Juan and Isa were occupying.

"Hannes **is** incredible with food, it's like he has a magic touch." Isa praised and Juan nodded,

"The first time he and Ethan invited us for dinner, I didn't even believe he'd actually cooked it himself." he laughed and looked at Will, who nodded with a small agreeing smile, leaning back in his chair and fiddling with his water filled glass.

Will would like to have kept quiet, but he knew a conversation prompt when he heard it, so he glanced at everyone and then looked back to Juan,

"That's true, you thought we'd hired caterers." he commented and Juan laughed, nodding again,

"I really did, I mean, it was a six course meal and Hannes' presentation was _maravilloso._ "

"All of the food looked so professionally done," Isa added, nodding at her husband's comment, "it was beautiful and cooked to perfection." she leaned into Juan with affected dreaminess.

Will felt proud listening to them compliment Hannibal, he enjoyed hearing Juan say that Hannibal _as well as_ Will had invited them to dinner and he liked being able to say 'we' when referring to his and Hannibal's home in any context. It all gave him very enthusiastic butterflies and a burst of verbal confidence to boot,

"He is very epicurean, and his cooking is a testament to that. Despite his many other hobbies and talents…creating amazing food is still Hannes' greatest passion." Will said with earnest admiration, knowing it was true and thinking of all that human meat that Isa and Juan had consumed with clueless smiles on their faces over the years.

These people had no idea. And that never failed to amuse Will.

" _No es esa mirada de nuevo,_ Ethan," Isa piped up, grinning against the rim of her glass and all pairs of eyes were on him immediately, and Will knew what she was referring to even before she added, "whenever he is thinking about how much he loves Hannes, he gets that look." she was apparently tipsy enough to embarrass Will.

Will laughed awkwardly, noticing how intently Adoncia was looking at him and how Eurico was trying not to look too obviously. He forced himself to shrug and then bobbed his eyebrows,

"I won't deny it." he mumbled with a smirk and took a gulp of his water, thinking why the hell should he?

"How long have you and Hannes been together?" Adoncia asked, breaking the silence with a soft, curious smile on her face. Will looked at her, blinking a few times and shifting in his seat as he took in an audible breath. He and Hannibal had a back story worked out for that very question, so it wasn't difficult to answer,

"Uh, well," he purposely didn't rattle anything off mechanically though, because it'd loose authenticity if he did, " _officially_ together as a couple, I'd say, about three years." he stretched one leg out and rubbed a hand down his thigh, fidgeting.

He hadn't done that in a while either.

Isa was nodding and she had her romantic smile on,

"Yes, but you two have known one another much longer." she added, having heard their made up story long ago. She loved it, she thought it was sweet and was absolutely clueless as to how far from sweet their earliest years had been. But no one knowing was the point, so.

"Oh?" Adoncia sat forward a little and Eurico glanced at her irritably, looking uncomfortable again. Will just nodded, going along with the flow of conversation,

"Yes, uh, we…Hannes and I, have known one another for just about nine years." a little bit of truth often helped to shape lies nicely, so their story was rather closely scripted to the truth.

"How did you meet?" she predictably asked.

Will rubbed his cheek with his free hand, his fine beard rasping before he swiped his hand over his mouth and smiled slightly, playing up a little shyness as he spoke with his eyes focused on the ground,

"We met through a mutual friend, she invited me along to one of Hannes' dinner parties and introduced me to him," he glanced at everyone, "and truth be told, we didn't really hit it off." they were all listening, even Eurico. "That night I mostly came across to him as a rude boor," they all laughed quietly as Will smiled at his own comment, embellishing on the story somewhat, "I had introverted, antisocial, high-strung asshole written all over me." they laughed even more at that, even Eurico cracked a smile. Will was entertaining them, "I barely talked the entire evening and when I did, I was just bad company, for everyone." Will had always preferred to ham up his antisocialism because it lowered people's expectations of him. It was a long standing tactic.

He took a sip of water and then continued,

"So, after the dinner party I didn't actually see Hannes again for a few weeks, but as it usually happens once you've been made aware of a person you didn't know before, I…ran into him on two different occasions, and both interactions we had, were pleasant." Will looked at the floor again, going over the made up details in his mind, "He ended up inviting me to dinner again, but the second time it was just the two of us and our mutual friend, so it went much better," a pause and a slow smile, "great, actually, we really got along well from then on."

Will was careful to make his way through the story at a deliberately thoughtful pace,

"Ultimately, we became friends," he placed his glass on the table, "then we became very good friends," Isa was grinning by that point, "And for many years that we were friends, I had no idea that he was interested in me like _that_ , not until our mutual friend brought it to my attention." he took a moment to look around at his audience.

Adoncia was listening with intense curiosity, Eurico was looking uncomfortable again and Juan was smiling around a lit cigarette dangling from his mouth.

"And then, **you** noticed." Isa added, leaning toward Will and pushing his knee lightly with her hand, and Will nodded and rubbed at the side of his neck,

"Yes, then I started noticing certain things in the way he talked to me and looked at me when we were alone with one another." there was a little truth in everything he'd said so far, depending on how Will looked at the original story. "And of course, he noticed that I noticed and randomly one day, he just decided to start being more obvious about it…without actually ever admitting it." Will remembered the turning point in their relationship, when Hannibal went from being completely not the Ripper, to letting little clues slip through the cracks just as teasers for Will's cooking brain, he'd grown bolder every day.

Will pursed his lips at the memory, still smiling as he sat forward and rubbed both of his hands down over the tops of his thighs before settling his elbows on his knees,

"It was up to me then, to either pretend like I hadn't noticed or to acknowledge that I had."

"So what did you do?" Adoncia giggled out her question, sipping her drink and licking her lips, no longer stained with lip stick. Will raised his eyebrows and glanced at Isa who looked tickled pink, her cheeks slightly rosy.

"I found a middle ground and Hannes and I danced around the issue for a long time, about a year or so," he recalled their courtship of dead bodies, of dinners and cooking in Hannibal's kitchen with him, the intense looks and words spoken that meant more than just what was said at the time.

"See the look." Isa pointed out with a raised eyebrow and a glance from Will to Adoncia, who giggled again and nodded,

"Sí, sí." she was watching Will intently.

Will truly wondered what he looked like in those moments, but, yes, his face felt too warm right then and he was blushing, dammit. He laughed awkwardly, short huffs of breath and then he tried to finish the story off,

"Well, anyway, gradually our time spent together became less the things friends did and more the things people who were dating did-…"

"Like what?" Adoncia asked curiously, placing her empty margarita glass on the floor beside her heeled feet.

Will faltered, blinking and raising his eyebrows and wondering how to deflect the unexpected question, but then he realized it was a relatively normal enquiry all things considered.

So Will swallowed lightly and wrung his hands together as he carefully elaborated,

"Uh, well, like…when I needed to go somewhere for work or out of town, Hannes would drive me." that was pretty damn true, "And instead of just inviting me to dinner, I'd cook with him and we'd eat together, have drinks after…I'd usually leave to go home pretty late." that was true too. "He would check in on my house and my dogs when I needed someone to feed them if I was going to be away from home for a while." also true. And while having been framed for murder during those check ins was irrelevant, the little truths mixed in between the lies and the horror of reality worked well. "He would give me impromptu gifts that he knew I'd appreciate…" he trailed off, remembering all of those beautiful crime scenes Hannibal had crafted, knowing that Will would be the only one truly able to recognize the art of them.

He cleared his throat when he decided he'd given enough examples. Honestly, pointing out all of those details aloud made Will realize just how close to a twisted courtship and relationship they'd actually had in those years before they'd killed Francis.

"So when did it just finally happen?" Adoncia asked almost wistfully, apparently finding the whole thing sweet just like Isa did. Will didn't need to fake the ache and sadness he remembered about the next part,

"When Hannes realized I was a commitment-phobe…and that I was essentially just stringing him along, that he wasn't getting anywhere with me, he, he gave up and left the country…and he came here, to Spain." he only just remembered to add the last part. If Adoncia was curious about where they'd lived before, she didn't immediately ask, too caught up in frowning about the sad turn in the story, so Will drove it home with a few choice words, "And because I didn't know what I'd had, when he was actually gone, I was left…gutted."

Oh yes. He'd been gutted.

Adoncia was shaking her head, frowning,

"What did you do?"

Will smiled, having expected that question,

"I followed him." and that was the 'romantic' part that Isa loved so much and she was beaming at him, Adoncia looking just as enchanted, "It was after a few months, but I ended up packing up my life and going after him."

And next was where he skipped a _huge_ chunk of true lies, since the entire thing with Hannibal being in the BSHCI after Florence and Muskrat Farm didn't really have any decent points to work around. So he just moved the timeline up to the end as he'd done for Isa when he'd first told her the mostly fabricated story, "But there was someone else interested in him, someone he'd known before he met me," because what was romance without a little drama? Seriously, the only person who wasn't enjoying the story was Eurico. Still, Will was getting tired of talking so he decided to wrap it up, "and it took a few bold gestures on my part, but to cut a long story short-…"

"You got your man!" Isa announced, wooting afterward –she tended to do that often- and leaning back into Juan, who put his arm around her shoulders and shared in her smile.

Will blushed again at her choice of words, but conceded with a tip of his head toward her, not making eye contact with anyone as he said quietly,

"Yes, yes I did."

There was a beat of silence and then,

"So much time, so much suspense, I bet that your first kiss was amazing." Adoncia said in a fascinated tone, but her statement was apparently a bit too forward for her husband's tastes,

" _Ese no es su negocio,_ Adoncia." he said brusquely, looking red in the face and very much like he didn't want to be involved in the conversation anymore.

She glanced at her husband, looking uncertain about what he'd said, but still, she was clearly going to apologize to Will anyway. And simply because Eurico was being such an asshole, Will decided to be one too,

"No, its fine really, I don't mind…" he raised an eyebrow at Eurico and then looked at Adoncia, "…and you're right by the way, it was amazing, just as every kiss since then has been."

Isa and Juan seemed to know what Will was doing, the couple having been one of the major reasons Will was no longer shy about discussing his relationship with Hannibal, and they were thoroughly amused.

Adoncia was beaming and blushing and Eurico had finally had enough, he cleared his throat and stood up,

"Excuse me." was all he said. Adoncia asked him, almost uninterestedly where he was going and he said something about checking his emails as he disappeared inside.

Will noticed, and Isa and Juan must have too, that Adoncia looked almost relieved once Eurico had left their company,

"Your story is so lovely, like something out of a movie." she commented with a softer smile, crossing her legs and folding her forearms on her knee. Will just offered her a distracted smile as he thought of how lucky he and Hannibal were that no one had decided to make a movie about Hannibal the Cannibal yet.

If anyone did though, they'd have to go straight into hiding.

Freddy had once been so eager to sell their story as a movie, but since they'd disappeared, amazingly –and confusingly- she'd been very…tactful and vague about what she'd published with regards to them after their disappearance. And even that had only lasted a couple of weeks before she'd stopped writing about them altogether. Curious that. Another thought on the subject was that maybe people were afraid that the big bad cannibal was still out there –which he was- so no one was eager to put themselves on the menu by making a movie.

Will didn't even know if Jack was still looking for them, or Alana for that matter. Hannibal wasn't interested in Jack though, he'd told Will that he felt like he and Jack had reached the peak of their interest in one another long ago and anything else that happened after Hannibal had turned himself in had just been police procedure at its most banal. Jack's exhausted moral fiber had just been refusing to let him be free by that point.

Hannibal was, however, _very_ interested in Alana, he had people looking for her constantly as far as Will knew. He also suspected that Hannibal intended to kill Margot and the Verger boy too, when he finally found Alana. Will didn't know that for sure though, and he never asked. But aside from Alana and family, Hannibal showed little interest in settling old scores. He hadn't even voiced any interest in killing Freddy Lounds, even if he quite liked the idea of her turning up dead somewhere. Really, besides Bedelia and Alana, Hannibal didn't show much interest in killing anyone from their past. So it was already one down and only one to go, because Bedelia was long dead.

Will frowned at the water pitcher on the table when he remembered the question he'd wanted to ask Hannibal about what he'd done with Bedelia Du Maurier's body.

Adoncia was politely declining to tell the story of how she met Eurico, saying it was boring compared to Will's story and Will quickly took advantage of the resulting lull in the conversation,

"Ah, excuse me guys," they all looked at him, "I'm going to check on Hannes."

He stood up and walked away when they gestured for him to go ahead and Will made his way inside. The aircon made the inside of the villa cooler than outdoors, but only marginally. He walked across the lounge and into the kitchen and as he entered his eyes fell on Hannibal, who stood at the counter where most of the food was already done and laid out on serving trays.

Hannibal looked up, sensing –or smelling- Will's presence and he smiled at Will. But it was an almost cursory smile, not an honest one and Will's stomach dropped out immediately, remembering that he and Hannibal hadn't had a moment alone since Will had been caught staring at Adoncia earlier.

Christ. He felt a little shock of panic fire off along his spine.

Will didn't want to talk about it right then though, they didn't have enough privacy in the kitchen for that conversation, so he decided to leave it for later and hoped it wouldn't make things worse to wait.

With a silent inhale, Will folded his arms over his chest and leaned in the doorway of the kitchen,

"Need any help?" he offered.

Hannibal glanced over the food trays and then nodded at Will,

"Yes, you can help me carry these outside." and he was at least speaking informally to Will, which meant he wasn't super pissed off, probably just slightly miffed.

Will nodded and walked closer, but instead of going to pick up a tray, he stepped around the counter and moved toward Hannibal, unfolding his arms so that he could take a hold of the sides of the apron Hannibal wore and turn the man to face him as he leaned up to kiss him.

The kisses that followed were slight and soft, their partially open mouths coming together a few times with sensual grazes of their tongues. It was intimate enough that it made Will feel less like he'd fucked up majorly earlier. Hannibal was alright with him, they were alright.

Once again, he forgot all about wanting to ask after Bedelia.

"How's your head?" Hannibal asked quietly after a final kiss, wiping his hands off on a dishcloth before bringing a hand up to slide over Will's cool forehead, where he held it for a second and then slid it into Will's soft curls.

Will leaned into his touch and half closed his eyes,

"Its fine, the aspirin helped…" he frowned lightly, "…was I…running a fever earlier?" he remembered Hannibal feeling his forehead then too. The older man shook his head lightly and then stepped back from Will to remove his apron,

"No, you were a bit warm but nothing to be alarmed about, a prerequisite to whatever was causing you stress at the time more than anything." he said casually, both of them knowing the thing that had made Will 'stress' was Adoncia's unexpectedly attractive presence.

Was that it though? Will still didn't get where it was coming from.

And Hannibal could definitely help him understand it, if only he could tell the man what had been going on with him all week, but that would mean admitting to finding the engagement ring and that was a big no, no.

Will refused to ruin that.

"You may take those trays," Hannibal gestured to two platters, "and tell Juan to please fetch the two bottles of _2003,_ _Valandraud_ I left in the bar fridge, they are to be served with dinner." Will's heart stopped in his chest for a moment and he just stared at Hannibal, "I'll bring these other trays along shortly." Hannibal said while adding a few decorative touches to the dishes on one of the trays.

Will swallowed quickly and forced himself not to frown,

"You brought wine…from home?" and wasn't that such an odd question, because why would it matter?

Hannibal glanced at him, his hair hanging over his forehead and shifting slightly as he mixed a new ingredient into a dressing he was making.

"Yes." he answered with a curious tilt of his head, an unspoken question of exactly why Will was asking.

Will just nodded and then shook his head, quickly grabbing the trays Hannibal had designated to him,

"G-great, good wine at least." he covered pathetically.

If Hannibal gave him an annoyed look, which Will just knew he probably had, he didn't have to see it, because he was already leaving the kitchen.

Will walked back outside with the trays and everyone's attention was on him immediately, including Eurico who had returned to the patio area at some point. They all stood up and came over to the table as Will set the trays down, doing their part to help by setting the chairs neatly in their place and clearing whatever else was on the table away. It was a very informal sort of eating situation and Will kind of liked it, he just wondered how Hannibal felt about it.

Will glanced at Juan,

"Uh, Juan, Hannes asked if you would please fetch the wine, it's the two _Valandraud_ bottles in the bar fridge." he passed the message along and Juan went with a smile, Isa following him saying she'd bring wine glasses. Adoncia retrieved the other half- finished drinks everyone had left around and set them on the tray with the water pitcher before picking the tray up,

"I'll just take this inside." she said before she clacked off quickly on too high heels and disappeared inside.

Will was left outside with Eurico for an awkward moment, in which he decided to make a minor power play by moving to stand at the head seat of the six seat patio dining table.

It would be Hannibal's seat, which meant Will would be sitting across in the other head seat.

He was curious whether Eurico would try to challenge it, since Will sensed that the man thought himself to be the most important and notable person among their present company. But Eurico was just an old curmudgeon in the end, since aside from a subtle clenching of his jaw, he just watched Will and said nothing.

Juan and Isa came back then and she set the glasses down as Juan started to uncork the wine. A minute later, just after the cork popped out, Hannibal came outside with Adoncia in tow, both of them carrying three other food trays, Hannibal carrying two and Adoncia carrying a large one over both of her forearms.

It irritated Will that Hannibal hadn't told him to come back and help with the rest of the food, but he didn't let it show, it would have been childish.

Hannibal noticed where Will was standing and after he placed the trays down along with Adoncia, who also had cutlery wrapped in napkins on her tray that she was laying out, Hannibal came to stand beside Will, accepting Will's choice of seating and approving of it with a brief moment of eye contact before he addressed everyone with a smile,

"I hope no one minds that we'll be eating in this self-service manner," but not really because every person's dish of each different food was on individual plates, so it was hardly a friggen' buffet or whatever, "not being in my own kitchen means I do not have the luxury of keeping all of the courses appropriately stored between servings, so please, eat as you like." he kept smiling in his charming manner as everyone waved off his concerns, complimented the food and started to pull up chairs.

Will pulled the chair out slightly for Hannibal and then moved around the table to the other head seat as Isa, Juan, Eurico and Adoncia all sat down as well, a couple on either side next to their respective partners.

"Everything looks delicious." Adoncia praised as she looked over the dishes.

"What have you made for us, Hannes?" Isa asked, because she was used to Hannibal's more formal servings where he announced each course. Hannibal inclined his head politely to her and as he was still standing while everyone got comfortable, he gestured politely to the food as he answered,

"In recommended order, watercress and papaya salad, Nappa cabbage and lobster rolls with mint mayonnaise and carrot ginger sauce, goat cheese quiche with prosciutto, grilled steak with black bean shrimp and a side of ginger butter potatoes," he glanced around at everyone's predictably impressed faces, "and thereafter, dessert."

"Oh, wow." Adoncia looked like she couldn't wait to start eating.

"This looks fantastic." Eurico said sincerely, even if he said it to the table, not looking at Hannibal.

Hannibal picked up the open wine bottle then and begun going around the table and pouring for everyone,

"Please, go ahead and eat." he let everyone know they could begin and of course, everyone selected the salad first because that was what Hannibal recommended.

Will had seen far more visually complicated and intricately prepared meals made by Hannibal before, but he recognized what he was looking at, as Hannibal doing as he and Will had agreed, making the weekend retreat completely normal. The food was all so plain, being as it was all animal meat and there were no macabre presentations, no food topiary that resembled bones, entrails, organs or Kafkaesque shaped _hors d'oeuvres_ , no blood textured sauce drizzled over the meat in a suggestively morbid pattern and no cryptic foreign names for the food that had double meanings.

Honestly, aside from the taste –which would only be lacking due to the fact that it was not their usual meat choice-, Will thought everything was perfectly ordinary.

Everyone was already eating savored forkfuls of the salad and complimenting the chef by the time Hannibal came to Will's side and poured wine into his glass in that elegant no-spill way he always managed. And Will smiled and felt light in his stomach and head when Hannibal pressed a kiss to his hair before he walked away back to his own seat. It was such a subtle and personal gesture that regardless of the fact that everyone noticed, Will didn't care and he continued to smile as he watched Hannibal take his seat.

They smiled at each other across the table then, exchanging another intimate glance, before they too tucked into the food.


	5. Kissed Blue

"Prisoned in glass beneath my seals of red."  
― Charles Baudelaire

* * *

 _Friday – 16 Sep 2022 – 10.12 PM_

Everyone decided after dessert, which had been mulled wine poached pears with toasted almonds and one more glass of wine to end off a delicious meal, that they would all be turning in early with an agreement to take advantage in the morning, of the beautiful weather and the stunning pool.

Isa and Adoncia had offered to clear the table and load the dishwasher when everyone was done and Will had given Hannibal a look that said 'say fucking yes' to which the man had conceded, graciously thanking them instead of insisting he'd do it himself.

It was just after ten PM when Hannibal finished taking a shower and Will, who had gone before him, was lying in bed and waiting for him, shirtless and wearing a pair of pajama bottoms. He was lying partially leaning against the pillows and headboard, watching as Hannibal walked around the room naked as he usually did at home, dabbing his skin dry with a towel while allowing the air to do the rest as he went about brushing his teeth and urinating.

When Hannibal finally got into bed after pulling on a pair of dark red pajama pants, Will seriously considered sucking him off again, just because dark red colors _always_ looked so good on him. But Hannibal was probably tired after spending those few hours cooking and they'd had a long day, so Will didn't want to start something that would more than likely end up as sex, he was already pretty sleepy himself anyway.

They did kiss though, just kissing. They almost always did before going to sleep and Will thought it was the most perfect fucking thing to do, because he'd never done it with Molly or anyone he'd been with briefly before, had never wanted to, not beyond a peck on the lips and a muttered goodnight. It had always been kiss, sex and sleep, but never, kiss, kiss some more and sleep.

But making out with Hannibal before bed made him feel content.

Presently, Hannibal's hands did drift beneath Will's pajamas -and underwear- a few times, and Will's did the same, but it was nothing inciting of sex, just pleasant intimate touches shared as they kissed with Hannibal lying halfway on top of Will, their legs entangled as much as their tongues were.

After a while Hannibal drew back and pressed moist kisses to Will's lips, sucking and nibbling and licking. His eyes were low-lidded and his one hand was buried in Will's hair, dark brown curls coiling around his long fingers. Will breathed softly through his parted lips as Hannibal tasted, teased and nipped at his mouth, puckering his reddened lips only when Hannibal's passed over them for a proper kiss. Otherwise, he was only too happy to lie there and just let Hannibal enjoy him however the older man pleased, because Will enjoyed it too.

When Hannibal started to kiss a trail down his neck, Will's partially hard cock twitched, and while he still didn't think they'd fuck, he'd be damned if kissing Hannibal never turned him on like they might anyway.

There was something carnal and provocative and empowering about having Hannibal's unholy and dangerous cannibal mouth, full of sharp flesh eating teeth, lavishing him with nothing but sweet attention, leaving empty threats in the wake of harmlessly scraping teeth which travelled over Will's vulnerable skin, skin that could be so easily torn into.

Will swallowed with a soft click, his Adams apple shifting under Hannibal's mouth and tongue as the man kissed widely over the front of his throat…and thinking of throats and the danger of Hannibal and his own racing pulse, Will remembered when he'd cut Bedelia's throat and then remembered what he'd wanted to ask Hannibal earlier,

"What did you do with Bedelia's body?" and yes, his words were spoken throatily, practically a moan, since he was downright turned on, even asking such a macabre question.

Hannibal nipped at the skin of his neck and pressed another kiss there, before speaking lowly,

"I'll tell you, if you'll first tell me why you called her a wounded bird…" his voice slipped into a whisper as he brought his lips to Will's and settled there, just about touching, their breaths mingling "…she looked so very angry and yet _terrified_ when she heard those words from you." he sounded reverent, his voice thick with restrained desire as he brushed the backs of his knuckles over Will's temple.

Will grinned in his uniquely unhinged way,

"Oh, **that** …" he said with a little huff of laughter, his hands sliding through Hannibal's hair as he looked up into the man's dark eyes, "…well, as my substitute psychiatrist while you were…indisposed, Doctor Du Maurier asked me what my instinct would be if I came across a wounded bird lying in grass." he raised his eyebrows, looking sleepy as he arched his body up briefly to make firmer contact with Hannibal's, "I answered…that I'd want to help the bird, and she…" Will shrugged facially, "…she said she'd want to crush it." he wet his lips slowly, his tongue grazing Hannibal's lips as well, "And then, she suggested that the next time I had the instinct to help, I should consider crushing instead." he whispered with a grin.

And he laughed softly, light and genuine, when Hannibal grinned down at him in understanding, his smile all sharp teeth and handsome lines. Will settled his laughter after a moment, feigning being confused and disappointed, but still smiling just a bit when he added, "I was so sure she'd understand, because I was just; _reacting to my primal rejection of her weakness_." he said the last part with a glazed expression as he'd imitated her cadence and Hannibal chuckled quietly, amused. Will smirked then and moved his head on the pillow in a coy tilt, his dark curls shifting, "But I don't think she appreciated that I took her advice." he finished, his tone softly wicked as he raked his blunt nails lightly over Hannibal's scalp, smooth and damp silver-brown hair wisping through his fingers.

Hannibal returned his dark grin, looking very pleased,

"You are such a malevolent boy." he said in a purring tone and Will leaned up into the kiss that followed those words, a slow, wide mouthed sliding of their tongues. Hannibal sucked at Will's lips and on the tip of Will's tongue, bit at the corners of Will's mouth and licked over the edges of Will's teeth, pressed Will's head back into the soft pillow as he dragged his deep and shallow kisses from angle to angle against Will's pliant mouth, and in the wake, left wetness and tenderness and a satiated smile on Will's face.

When the mouth sex ended, Will hummed throatily, opened his drowsy eyes and kept smiling as he responded,

"Yeah, and she was a vindictive bitch, so…"

Hannibal looked at him intensely then, nuances of emotion seeping into the way he swallowed tightly and parted the seam of his lips just so, as if in silent wonderment, tracking his eyes over Will's face slowly as if memorizing him in great detail. It was a look that revealed just how deep his feelings for Will ran without him actually vocalizing them.

Lightly, Hannibal ran a thumb over his bottom lip, fanning his fingers out over Will's cheek, deeply engrossed as he thought about whatever it was Will inspired in his grotesquely beautiful mind, and Will just watched him too, silently basking in his resonant gaze.

Will couldn't help thinking that right then would be a perfect moment for a proposal, ring or no ring.

His gaze lowered to Hannibal's lips as he imagined the words ' _marry me?_ ' being whispered against his mouth…

…it didn't happen though. Instead, Hannibal leaned in and kissed him for many more long minutes, stopping only when Will was having trouble keeping his eyes open.

They finally went to sleep then, close and touching.

And Will had forgotten _again_ about getting an answer to his question about Bedelia, and also, he forgot all about the awkward moment he'd had because of Adoncia that afternoon…

* * *

…until the following morning came.

* * *

 _Saturday – 17 Sep 2022 – 10.36 AM_

Hannibal had been up first out of everyone as far as Will assumed, because the man was a ridiculously early riser. It was obviously a predator thing. You know, because Hannibal couldn't exactly be at the top of the food chain if he wasn't at the top of his game and one step ahead of everyone else at all times and whatnot.

Anyway, so by the time Will had been awake, washed up and dressed -wearing a white button down shirt and a pair of light blue jeans with light gray slip on canvas sneakers- and had made his way downstairs, everyone except for Isa was up and tucking into breakfast at the table outside on the patio. He'd joined them, walking over first and foremost to where Hannibal sat and pecking him on the lips with a smile and a quietly spoken 'good morning', before taking his seat at the opposite end of the table and digging into the breakfast spread which was served much the same way the dinner had been.

A minute later Hannibal had excused himself and gone inside and another minute later Isa came out to join them, complaining about a headache as she sipped on orange juice and wore sunglasses to shield her eyes from the sun. Will avoided the various fruit juices set on the table and realized after a glance around that there was no coffee anywhere, which was just distressing, because it was the only thing he drank in the morning.

He picked his fork up and poked at his breakfast, deciding to attempt to eat despite the lack of caffeine.

But he should have known better, because Hannibal knew he needed coffee in the morning and Hannibal always made him coffee, so while Will wasn't exactly surprised when Hannibal came back outside and set down a cup of coffee beside his hand, brewed precisely the way Will liked it, it didn't stop Will from giving Hannibal a deeply grateful and loving look of thanks for it.

And despite how meticulously Hannibal prepared coffee and what a process it was, he was always polite, so he asked if anyone else wanted coffee. And Will found there was something incredibly satisfying in the way everyone quickly and politely declined, glancing from Will to Hannibal as if they wouldn't dare to think he would make coffee for them as he'd just done for Will.

So everything had been really good for the first hour of Will's morning, that was…until the topic of swimming came up.

Juan wasn't shy, he was the first to discard his shirt over the back of his chair after he'd eaten, leaving him in colorful swimming trunks, and he'd leapt right into the relatively deep infinity pool, making everyone smile in surprise. Isa then glanced at Adoncia and the two of them followed Juan's lead, Isa taking off her long black sarong which left her in a modest one piece halter-neck, indigo bathing suit, and she carefully walked over to the pool and sat down on the edge, slipping neatly into the water, trying not to get her hair wet and keeping her sunglasses on.

And then there was Adoncia.

She removed her white kaftan over her head like a showy sorority girl on spring break, which left her in a far from modest, tiny white strapless bikini top and matching low rise bottom. The bikini just, _just_ , covered her perky breasts and her pert ass, leaving all the rest of her smooth skin on show.

And Will stared at her, at her curves and the subtle bounce of her breasts as she walked quickly over to the side of the pool and slipped into the water just as Isa had. Eurico was watching her too, his gaze was openly admiring -pervy if you asked Will- who noticed how the old man watched his young wife only when he'd finally looked away from Adoncia himself.

In a bit of a confused daze from the involuntary and sudden shift in his attention, Will rubbed a hand over his face and inhaled quietly before he turned to look at Hannibal…and he stopped breathing when their eyes met dead on. Hannibal's eyes were glinting a light maroon color in the sunlight, and he was looking at Will with an expression that was unreadable, which was rare for Will.

But Hannibal's face was a picture of calm, and that was more concerning than anything else.

Because Hannibal had obviously seen Will looking at Adoncia, again, and how could he not have when Will had been so openly staring, and now-…

"Ethan!" Isa's voice startled him and he whipped his head around to look at her, "Come and swim." she said it like a command, waving him over with an elegant, spindly hand.

Will had never had any intention of swimming, hence the lack of swimwear, so he abruptly shook his head,

"No, no, I'm not going in the water." he only ever really swam in their pool at home. He didn't even go to the beach to swim.

Isa leaned on the inner ledge of the pool, right beside Adoncia who smiled at Will encouragingly, her long hair was tied back in a loose bun so only a few pieces of it touched the water.

"Oh come on, Ethan, don't be so spoiled." Isa teased, smiling as Juan floated up behind her and pulled her away from the ledge, the couple paddling further into the pool toward the open edge overlooking the balcony drop off.

Eurico's phone went off in his pocket just then and the man excused himself, going inside to take his call.

Will noticed then that Hannibal was gathering plates and he didn't look at Will as he left to go inside as well.

Will was about to follow him when Isa demanded again, followed by Juan, that he get in the water. He didn't want to tell them off even as he clenched his jaw in irritation, because they weren't even being unreasonable, it was a retreat where he was meant to do things like relax and swim and socialize.

He considered whether following after Hannibal and trying to talk about his awkward inappropriate behavior would be the best idea right then, and after a tense swallow, he decided Hannibal wouldn't appreciate the issue being discussed when everyone was around. So he resigned himself to dealing with it later. Sliding his chair back and then slipping his sneakers off, Will leaned over and rolled the bottoms of his pants legs up to his knees before he got up from his chair, glancing uncertainly in the direction of the villa before he walked to the edge of the pool and sat down with a tense sigh.

He sat down near the pool ladder, a good few feet from where Adoncia was floating, placing the lower half of his legs into the water so that the crystal blue liquid was just short of touching his pants and getting them wet.

Once he was settled, he raised his arms in defeat to Isa and Juan,

"There, I'm part-ways in the water, alright?" he smiled at them when they grinned and Isa splashed water at him with a laugh, but it thankfully fell quite short of wetting him.

The water was cool on his legs and the sun warm on his head, it was pleasant, neither temperature too extreme. Isa and Juan were still at the drop off end, having a moment between the two of them. Leaving them to some privacy, Will looked down at the clear blue water and he stared at it, his mind drifting to thoughts of Hannibal and wondering what the man was thinking about his weird behavior.

He was sighing inwardly when the rippling of water around his legs made him glance up and he realized Adoncia was coming closer, pulling herself along the edge of the pool until she was floating less than a foot away from him.

Will immediately felt self-conscious, uncomfortable and tense, keeping his eyes very specifically away from her, lest his gaze drift to the wet swell of her breasts as she treaded water gently.

"You don't like to swim?" she asked congenially and his eyes flitted briefly to look at her. Her face was dry, her makeup in natural tones, her lips glossy and she was smiling all sweet like.

Will stared at the water, shifting his legs idly,

"I, I do, I swim…at home." he tipped his head to the side slightly, bobbing his eyebrows once.

For whatever reason, she giggled,

"Are you afraid of germs or something?" she asked, smiling as she pulled herself closer to the ledge and leaned her forearms on the poolside tiles, looking up at him. Will shook his head, eyes on the water, he huffed out an insincere laugh coupled with an equally insincere twitching smile,

"No, that's…no, I'm not afraid of germs." he said a bit tightly and didn't offer a reason, especially not the real reason, being that he had too many scars that could not be explained away.

She nodded then, wisely dropping the subject and glancing at the patio doors before looking at Will again,

"Eurico won't swim because he doesn't like chlorine…and germs." she volunteered the information with an amused smile and when Will did little more than acknowledge her with another brief glance, she asked, "What about Hannes?"

Will felt twice as self-conscious at the idea of talking to her about Hannibal, so he answered shortly,

"Um, Hannes…he, he swims, but usually just for fitness." he admitted honestly, since Hannibal specifically went to a private membership gym so he could do laps in the olympic size pool there.

"Oh, is he a good swimmer?" she enquired, kicking her legs so she bobbed up in the water a bit.

Will immediately recalled the vivid memory of Hannibal bleeding out of a bullet wound in the side of abdomen and still managing to swim in the Atlantic ocean, in the pitch dark of night, while dragging a less than lucid Will along a short-ways down from the bluff to the beach, having saved their lives.

He found he could really only agree,

"Yes, an exceptional swimmer, actually." he corrected, staring at the water again.

She sounded thoughtful when she said,

"An exceptional man, yes?" and Will looked at her sharply, so she added quickly, "Isa says he is," she smiled kindly, blushing and shrinking back under the weight of Will's unexpected –for both of them- jealous glare, "and Juan says he's an exceptional doctor. I believe them both on their opinions of him," she was avoiding his eyes now, "and I hope he will join the practice Juan and I want to start up." she added more seriously.

Slowly, Will slid his gaze back to the water, only after he'd reeled in the sudden spike of possessiveness he'd felt. He didn't know if she was hoping that he'd put in a good word with Hannibal about the private business idea, but he wouldn't, because it would be Hannibal's decision to make and Will wouldn't interfere.

He just nodded vaguely in response to her comment as he raised his eyes to see Juan swimming over, much to Will's silent relief. Juan pulled himself up onto the pool ledge beside Will with the help of the ladder and when he sat down, some of the water from his wet person ran off onto the tiles and seeped over to wet Will's jeans, the light denim easily soaking it up. Will gave him a weak glare and he just grinned,

"I'm going to make us drinks," he looked from Will to, "Adoncia?"

"Hmmmm," she glanced at Isa with raised eyebrows, "what is Isa having?"

"A white wine sangria."

"Ah, I'll have the same, thanks." she decided and Juan then turned to Will, putting his –wet- arm around Will's shoulders, undoubtedly on purpose and Will groaned and elbowed the grinning man lightly in his ribs.

"And you Ethan?" he asked, unfazed.

Will raised his eyebrows, huffing lightly as he glanced from Juan to Isa, who was still leaning at the drop off but was facing them and smirking. He shrugged when he could think of nothing interesting,

"I guess…maybe, uh, how about a simple Jack and Coke?" he smiled at Juan hopefully.

Juan made an unimpressed face and then grinned as he got up swiftly,

"I will surprise and impress you, my friend, don't underestimate me." he announced as he headed inside.

Will glanced back at him and made a lazy hand gesture,

"Just as long as it has whiskey in it." he said after the older man, who gave him a quick thumbs up.

Isa laughed from across the pool,

"He used to mix drinks at cocktail parties when he was a young man, Ethan, he knows what he's doing." she informed and Will nodded,

"Then I look forward to my drink."

Adoncia was smiling along with them as she looked at Will again,

"You must be exceptional at something too, Ethan?" it was a question but it sounded more like a statement, she sounded sure. Will raised his eyebrows, thinking of the only things he'd ever excelled at…which was fixing boat motors and catching killers.

And that second thing hadn't really worked out so well.

Or it had, if he considered it in the sense that he'd caught _himself_ a serial killer.

It wasn't a suitable answer though.

So, smiling a bit like a dork at his own lame thoughts, he stepped around the question,

"I can tell you what I'm _not_ exceptional at, swimming, mixing drinks and cooking…" and then he looked down at Adoncia and smiled wryly, redirecting the conversation, "…I could however, drink any one of you under the table." And that was a fact, Will's alcohol tolerance was impressive.

"Is that so!?" Adoncia looked thrilled to hear it, "maybe we should do shots later!" she suggested.

And Will thought it was ridiculous that someone so lightweight would want to play drinking games. He would have laughed, but right then Adoncia put one of her hands in a pat on Will's thigh, just above his knee, and he jerked abruptly away from the touch.

Isa and Adoncia noticed, obviously. Will cringed inwardly at the attention he'd drawn to himself and he cleared his throat, looking away from both women so he didn't have to see their faces.

He was really grateful when Juan came back with a tray of drinks five minutes of silence later.

* * *

In the time that passed before lunch came around, everyone busied themselves with doing something.

Isa stayed in the water for a while, eventually migrating to a pool chair to suntan after Juan applied sunscreen for her. Following that, Hannibal, Juan, Eurico and Adoncia –who'd finally put her kaftan back on- went to sit inside and discuss the business venture.

Will decided to take the second _Vieux Carre_ cocktail that Juan made for him –impressive in taste as promised-, upstairs to the bedroom he was sharing with Hannibal, where he reclined on the bed and switched on the flat screen TV.

He occupied himself with watching a Spanish drama film until noon came around, at which time Juan took on the responsibility of lunch, deciding to take the reins from Hannibal for one meal so he could make his apparently well-loved Paella. Hannibal actually seemed to be looking forward to trying it -which surprised Will- and he offered to make _Mejillones Relleñadas_ , which translated as stuffed mussels, to go along with the Paella.

Will was once again able to see why Hannibal enjoyed Juan's company, since the two men spent over an hour together in the kitchen cooking together. Occasionally they could be heard laughing, Juan had a boisterous laugh while Hannibal's was a refined and baritone chuckle.

Isa had moved from her pool chair to sit under one of the large outdoor daybeds with a canopy, where she was reading a book. And Will joined her, reclining back and browsing world news on his phone while they waited for lunch.

It had long since become a habit of his to make sure he and Hannibal were not being reported on in the news for any reason.

Adoncia and Eurico were upstairs, doing whatever.

It'd be gross to imagine them doing _anything_ besides talking, so Will just didn't.

Lunch was ready eventually and it was delicious. The Paella was really good and Hannibal's dish of muscles did in fact compliment it very nicely, and along with all the cocktails Juan made for everyone, including –for a change- one for Hannibal, a boulevardier, it turned out to be a great meal.

And as conversation drew on around the table, the air filled with the sounds of cutlery tinking against glassware, the running water of the infinity pool, the occasional bout of laughter, Will was momentarily struck with the realization of how easily Hannibal was able to blend in, to have conversations and make _friends_ , to just be 'normal'. His lies were effortless in every person suit he wore or pretense he paraded...including the friendly, kindly smiling affectation of Hannes Kask…

…and there was a part of Will that decidedly did not like it.

He was glad it was only a lie.

* * *

 _Saturday – 17 Sep 2022 – 4.06 PM_

Adoncia's shooters suggestion came up again a while after lunch and while Juan did make shots for everyone, no one got into any drinking games. Rather, everyone just enjoyed watching Juan show off his drinks making talent as they all sat around in the lounge area relaxing.

Will sat beside Hannibal at the end of one of the loveseats, close enough that their sides were touching, their legs crossed in opposite directions and Hannibal's one arm was up behind Will's head, rested along the sofa back while his other was on the armrest, and Will's arms were loosely crossed over his chest. Adoncia sat beside her husband on the other loveseat, not unlike how Will and Hannibal were sitting, except that Eurico's arm was around and hanging over her shoulder, and she was sitting turned inward toward him while he sat facing forward.

Isa was sitting on the canapé sofa next to the empty spot that Juan would sit down in in between making shots for everyone. Currently he was behind the bar, putting together the fifth round of shots as he explained to everyone why certain alcohols blended better for taste than others.

Hannibal spoke up when Juan had finished,

"Are your intentions to have us all inebriated this evening, Juan?" he asked with a slight smile.

Will glanced at Hannibal –who, like himself, was completely sober- and then at everyone else, and true enough, Adoncia was tipsy and so was Isa, even Eurico looked a little on the glazed side.

Too many cocktails at lunch on top of too many dubious shooters would do that.

Will had been careful about drinking water in between all the alcohol, because having big secrets meant there was no room for loose lips. And Hannibal, well, Will didn't even know what a drunk Hannibal Lecter would look like.

Juan wasn't tipsy either, but Will had noticed he'd also been watering down his own alcohol intake with juices and snacks and water throughout the day. That was yet another reason why Hannibal probably liked him, he was responsible, reasonable and self-aware.

Juan finished making the new round of shots and with a cigarette hanging from his mouth, eyes squinted against the smoke, he came around the bar toward everyone with a tray of shot glasses which he set down on the small coffee table and suggested,

"Let's make this the last for the night then, huh?"

"Yes, and then, the Jacuzzi!" Adoncia announced and Isa, unsurprisingly, seconded that motion.

Will wanted to protest against anymore activities that required being in a state of undress, but Hannibal seemed unconcerned, nodding as he extended his hand to take the shot glass that Juan was holding out to him. Will's was handed to him next and as Juan handed everyone else their shots, Hannibal sniffed his and Will looked at him, waiting for the verdict,

"This is a sweet one," Hannibal announced, having been amusing everyone with his _exceptional_ sense of smell, "Amaretto," he took another sniff and made a slight face of distaste, "a coffee liqueur…" he pursed his lips and Will took a sniff of his own just out of curiosity but to him it did in fact just smell sweet.

Juan nodded to confirm Hannibal was right about those two guesses as he sat down with his own shot in hand,

"And one more." He glanced around and Adoncia sniffed hers too, coming up with nothing just as Will had.

"Yes, yes, what else is in it, Juan?" Isa prompted impatiently, wanting to drink it.

Juan rolled his eyes at his wife good naturedly,

" _Bueno, bueno_ , it's Irish cream liqueur." he told everyone and Hannibal's mouth turned down at the corners just that much more.

He'd only drank the first two of the shooters so far, which had been a Jäger Bomb and Three Wise Men, in which there'd been nothing creamy and sweet like the present one and the last two they'd had - a Buttery Nipple and a Nutty Irishman. Hannibal didn't favor those types of alcohols, so he'd handed the third one off to Isa, the fourth to Adoncia and now he handed the fifth one to Will.

Will took it, he'd drink it to spare Hannibal.

"Oh come on, Hannes." Isa whined and Juan laughed, amused apparently.

Hannibal just shook his head once lightly,

"I'm very particular about what I put into my body." he glanced at Will as if to say 'and yours too' but he wouldn't tell Will what he should and should not do, the look said enough though. Will grinned wryly,

"I'll be fine, it's been a while since and it'll be a while before it happens again." he reassured Hannibal, who accepted that response with silence. The domesticity of the moment was not lost on Will and it re-inspired those frolicking butterflies to make an uproar in his stomach again.

"What is this one called?" Eurico asked, looking warily at the pale creamy colored shot.

Juan grinned,

"An Orgasm." he informed with a naughty grin.

Eurico managed a small smile since he was a little less refined after all the alcohol and Adoncia giggled and blushed. Isa however took the name of the drink in her stride and winked at Hannibal and Will,

"Well, never mind then, Hannes will have one of those later anyway." and she proceeded to knock back the shot, swallowing it with not even so much as a flinch. And afterward she aimed a raised eyebrow at Hannibal and Will, challenging them with a look as they both sat staring at her. Adoncia was trying to hide a blushing smile behind her hand and Eurico looked uncomfortable _again_.

Hannibal was surprisingly unbothered by her quip, simply glancing at Will with an amused smirk. And Will, who was not about to be a prude and saw no bad reaction from Hannibal, he played along. With everyone watching him, he smirked and then raised one shooter glass he held in concession of the statement made before he downed the pale liquid.

Isa, who just _loved_ to build Will up in confidence, looked delighted to have achieved her goal.

"Should we wear ear plugs tonight, Ethan?" she enquired, her implication in that statement not even subtle.

Eurico had drunk his shooter and he cleared his throat abruptly while Adoncia giggled gleefully and Juan just shook his head with a smile.

Isa was a bad influence because Will was getting way too confident,

"Probably, I can get pretty noisy." he commented very boldly and as he went to bring the second shooter to his lips, Hannibal plucked it from his fingers,

"Perhaps you have had enough, Ethan." he commented in an even voice, still wearing a small smile but Will knew that Hannibal knew he wasn't anywhere near drunk, so that particular domestic display was a compete act. It was Hannibal's way of letting Will know he was crossing a certain line in terms of their personal business that Hannibal didn't like, and that he should shut up.

So Will let him take the drink and he looked at Hannibal apologetically, a bit surprised to find Hannibal still looking honestly amused. Will had thought he'd be annoyed, at least under the surface, but no, he just looked humored.

Juan was the one to take the edge off the awkwardness that time by looking at Isa and smiling suggestively at her,

"Maybe everyone should wear ear plugs tonight for us, Isa, you are usually very loud yourself." he teased her and Isa burst out laughing, her cheeks flushing suddenly. She fell into Juan, hiding her face in his neck as they both laughed. Adoncia was giggling all over again and in the context of heterosexual sex, Eurico looked decidedly more amused.

When their laughter tapered off, Isa made a show of fanning herself and then made a much needed subject change,

"Jacuzzi?" she suggested and Adoncia immediately agreed.

Hannibal leaned forward to place the shooter glass in the tray on the table,

"I'll make a quick dinner, and then I shall join you all." he announced and Will blinked rapidly, realizing that Hannibal actually intended to get in the fucking Jacuzzi? Or at least that's how it sounded.

"We'll eat after?" Juan asked to the room at large and everyone seemed agreeable, even Hannibal, who stood up with graceful ease and extended his hand to Will,

"Ethan, help me with dinner." it wasn't a question but it was posed warmly enough to not sound like a demand.

"Of course." Will said quickly and took his hand, standing up.

He followed Hannibal into the kitchen, taking note that everyone else made their way outside to the Jacuzzi, and once they were alone in the kitchen Will focused on Hannibal, who went immediately to switch the stove on.

Doing a quick mental breakdown of how often he'd fucked up so far, Will sighed and leaned his hands on the island counter, deciding to acknowledge his most recent transgression first,

"I'm sorry…about that. I'm obviously getting a little too comfortable," he pursed his lips briefly, "I'll dial it down." he added quietly and then he turned and walked over to the sink to wash his hands, preparing to help with whatever Hannibal needed.

He was in the process of rinsing dish soap off his hands under the stream of water when he felt arms slip around his waist. Hannibal had come to stand behind him, pressing the firm length of his body against Will's back and placing a kiss to the side of his neck. Will instantly melted into the embrace in relief, his eyes falling half shut as he blindly reached out and shut the water off, leaning back against Hannibal.

"It wasn't my intention to make you feel reprimanded." his voice was soft, his lips sensual against Will's neck, but his words were serious,"I'm merely concerned that when this strange behavior of yours has passed, you will be left regretting your uncharacteristically bold actions and words." he pointed out reasonably, speaking as a man who knew Will Graham very well and confirming for Will that Hannibal knew something was way off.

Will knew it too and he wasn't managing it very well.

He was being audaciously bold about his relationship with Hannibal and yet still feeling insecure about it at the same time. It was exhausting and those feelings mixing with the consistent threat of headaches he wasn't supposed to be having anymore, was also making him behave unlike himself.

He didn't respond to Hannibal's words though, because he didn't exactly have anything to say that would make sense without backtracking to Tuesday afternoon and him finding the engagement ring. So instead he changed the subject, speaking softly too but also seriously,

"We can't get in the Jacuzzi with them." he said surely, looking down at his wet hands.

"No, we can't." Hannibal agreed, and if he were annoyed by Will's continued avoidance, he said nothing as he nuzzled his nose into Will's curls just behind his ear.

Will tilted his head to the side to give Hannibal better access,

"So how are we going to get out of getting in?" he asked quietly, letting his eyes fall closed.

"Once they're in the water with fresh drinks, they will not be overly concerned with us choosing to remain out of it…especially if we say we'd like them to hurry so we can slip away after dinner, implying that we'd like some time alone." Hannibal's tone was awfully suggestive, and Will loved it. He easily went along with it, matching the tone,

"Well, there is the matter of that orgasm…" he smirked, glancing over his shoulder.

Hannibal hummed against Will's ear and then scraped his teeth –those cannibal teeth- over the sensitive shell, sliding his hands to settle on Will's waist for a firm squeeze before he stepped back altogether and went back across the kitchen to do what he'd been doing before, except he had a small smirk on his face, which made Will feel much better.

Will looked down into the sink at the suds lingering around the drain hole and he clutched the counter edge.

He was already turned on several notches by the suggestion in all of the things Hannibal _didn't_ say about all of the things he _would_ do. Those little kisses and touches, that purring hum, were all really cruel promises in a way.

Mustering up his patience, Will took a deep breath as he stood there, having needed just a moment to clear his head before he turned around and reached for a dish cloth to dry his hands on as he walked over to Hannibal's side to await instruction.

* * *

 _Saturday – 17 Sep 2022 – 7.18 PM_

There was an incident after the Jacuzzi, which Will and Hannibal successfully avoided getting into...the Jacuzzi that is. The incident on the other hand…

It was right after they'd all eaten.

Everyone was still sitting around the outdoor dining table and it became apparent to all present that Eurico was fed up with Adoncia's increasingly intoxicated state and the fact that she'd almost had a slip in front of everyone with her strapless bikini top in the Jacuzzi.

So the couple got into a bit of an argument at the table and when it started to escalate to yelling, they left to go inside, but only to the lounge, where they shouted at one another in –audible and crisp- Spanish while Will, Hannibal, Juan and Isa were all stuck sitting out on the patio, able to hear every word.

They all tried to mind their own business…that was, until everyone heard Eurico bring up the name 'Ethan'.

Will's face immediately twitched into a frown and he looked to the villa with narrowed eyes, looking in through the glass to the lounge area where the couple was still arguing loudly. And while Isa and Juan looked at him with twin frowns of confusion…Hannibal looked at no one. He remained outwardly unaffected, posture perfect with his eyes cast downward into the swirling red wine in his glass, which he inhaled lightly from before taking a delicate sip.

They'd all heard what Eurico had said, about how he didn't like the way Ethan kept looking at Adoncia's body and how she'd been showing off for him. And the first part of the statement was probably confusing for Juan and Isa, because as far as they knew, Will was a homosexual. Isa looked thoughtful though, having turned her gaze to stare out at the early evening sea view and Hannibal…Hannibal was closed off completely. Will's empathy was coming up with nothing, much like it had used to during the first few months he'd known Hannibal. It was like reaching into a bottomless chasm…Will could look forever, go deeper and deeper and never find anything but more cold, dark hollowness.

So he stopped reaching because it made him feel sick and sore and a little dizzy, not finding anything to grasp onto in his safest place made Will feel very uneasy. He had no idea what Hannibal felt about what had been overheard and it scared him. And the thing was, Will couldn't even deny that he had been looking at her, he just wasn't entirely sure why he had.

The argument went on in the background, Adoncia telling Eurico he was being ridiculous, that being jealous of a gay man was pathetic, saying he was behaving like a brute and embarrassing them and Eurico was telling her she needed to grow up and stop dressing so indecently.

It sounded like something a father would say to a daughter…and with how _old_ he was…well…

The yelling ended when Adoncia stormed off upstairs and Eurico followed her right after.

And only once their voices were no longer audible at all, did Hannibal finish the last sip of his wine and then excuse himself evenly, standing up with his usual poise before walking away and inside without looking back at Will or anyone else.

Will watched him until he disappeared inside, out of sight and pain and panic settled heavily in his chest at not knowing what to do about the situation. It felt like someone was putting pressure on his lungs, like Hannibal did when he was preparing lung meat and had to apply weight and pressure in order to expel the remaining air trapped inside.

Will felt like he was suffocating slowly and he quickly excused himself as well, but his departure was abrupt and rude and he walked away fast, staying outside of the villa and going around to the far end of the balcony until he was out of sight of anyone. He found a low garden chair there and he dragged it toward him before he sat down with a shaken, tense exhale.

Leaning forward, he placed his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands as he tried to calm down, trying to stabilize his shaking stomach and racing pulse. He was swallowing convulsively against nausea that threatened he would be sick, and it was because he felt quietly terrified at having seen and felt Hannibal so closed off after so many years. He didn't know what it meant but it scared him, he felt like he'd betrayed Hannibal somehow by looking at a woman for a reason he had yet to decipher for himself. And also there was the fact that he felt as if he'd embarrassed Hannibal. Will wasn't sure which was worse of the two though, because he couldn't guess whether Hannibal would just be angry at him for his wandering eyes or if he would decide to kill everyone present over the embarrassment and insult caused.

Hannibal's priorities were very complicated.

Will felt a surge of anger when he heard the sound of sandals approaching, because he really wanted to be alone right then and someone was being very rude and intrusive.

Reining in his temper only just, Will dragged his hands over his face and said harshly,

"Go…away, really, just… _leave_ …" he turned his head afterward to look at who it was, his eyes settling on Isa, the older woman stopping a few feet away with her hands on her hips. She seemed unperturbed by Will's warning tone, completely uninterested, but of course, she had no idea what Will was.

Will felt a familiar craving to inflict violence drive the blood in his veins to flow faster and in a flash of sepia and high contrasting greens and blues, he imagined himself grabbing Isa by her hair and throwing her on the ground to repeatedly slam her head into the brick tiles…until her skull cracked open and her brains seeped out from the trauma. He'd have his hand around her throat tightly so that she couldn't scream and he-…

"Ethan-…" she said his name like it was a perplexing riddle.

"Isa-…" Will cut her off sharply, starting to physically shake as he clenched his hands into tight fists, "…leav-…"

" **Ethan**." she said it more firmly that time, a demand, and Will's entire body tensed up with the effort of remaining where he sat, of keeping his violent urges in check.

Cluelessly, Isa approached with a sigh. Will was aware of her sitting down on another one of the low garden chairs, taking a long breath before she spoke,

"There's something you never told me." she was speaking quietly now and Will frowned down at the ground, not understanding her odd words.

His face and hands were twitching with restrained violence, and he specifically didn't look right at her because she would have seen the threat he posed if she had to look into his eyes.

"What?" he asked tightly, very quietly, before clenching his jaw.

Isa leaned forward,

"You are bisexual." she said surely and Will couldn't even laugh at the stupidity, the sheer fucking imbecility of such an observation right then. Air left his lungs in an unsteady and irritably exhaled rush as his mouth edged into a grimacing sneer,

"This is a very bad time, Isa, just-…"

"You have been looking at Adoncia, Ethan, I noticed it, I think we all did." she pointed out unhelpfully.

Will stood up abruptly and his chair scraped back loudly. He had to actually take a step back and turn away from her in order to stop himself from going for her instead. He _really_ needed her to leave, his temper was only as controlled as the situation permitted. He was not Hannibal, he didn't have total self-command.

"But, no, it makes no sense," she went on, her tone very serious and thoughtful, "because you have been around many, many beautiful young women in the time I've known you. When we've walked our dogs together on the beachfront, they are parading around us half naked in their _pequeñas tangas_. And I've seen those same girls smile at you, show an open interest as you walk by them." she hummed, "And also, when we've gone out to lunch, there are waitresses and groups of young girls…girls, girls, girls, all over, everywhere." she waved a hand.

Will had been listening and he turned around slightly to look at her, blinking a few times with a frown as her words sunk in.

She tilted her head slowly when he looked at her –was she being smug?- and Will found himself actually wanting to listen to her, taking her words into serious consideration because…she was making sense.

"And your students too, I'm sure many of them are young and attractive and flirtatious, but you…" she pointed a finger at him and Will just stared at her, "…you have **never** noticed, or if you did, you either hid it very well or you never cared, _never_ showed interested." she continued to make sense and Will clenched his hands and realized his shaking had subsided, he was frowning less and less too, "So now," she looked thoughtful again, "for this girl, this girl who is just another pretty face, to be this distracting to you, it means something's happened, something's bothering you, something is wrong, Ethan, and it has to do with Hannes, yes?" she raised an expectant eyebrow at him.

And she'd just hit the nail right on the head, she was right on the money.

Will turned properly to look at her fully, his darkness receding back into the tears in his person-suit as it all sealed itself back up with crooked stitching. He swallowed tensely, amazed at how she had been able to determine those details. She wasn't a shrink, Will knew that, but yet, she'd always been so perceptive…

Her expression softened when he was facing her properly,

"I know better than anyone, aside from you and Hannes of course, just how much you love that man, Ethan. I saw it in you the very first time I met you and I've seen it every time since." she had a fond look in her eyes now and Will felt all of his irritation drain away as she reassured him of what he already knew, "Adoncia in her little bikini, you looked at her, but you didn't really _look_." she squinted one eye, "I watched your eyes glaze over earlier today when she took her little body cover off, you looked more worried than interested in what you were seeing." she laughing softly, frowning a bit. She'd apparently been watching Will closely all day.

Stiffly at first, Will walked back to his chair, not taking his eyes off of Isa as he reached blindly for the armrest and once he gripped it, he sat down heavily and sighed, placing his forehead in his free hand and shaking his head,

"This…entire week has been a _nightmare_." he mumbled, hoping that confiding in Isa was something he could trust doing, because he really needed to talk to someone.

"So something **did** happen?" she asked, even quieter now and Will just nodded into his hand.

She was quiet for a moment before she spoke again, sadness laced into her voice,

"Has Hannes been unfaithful to you?"

Will lifted his head up then and looked at her with a frown, ready to say 'what' in disbelief, but when he looked into her eyes, he was able to see where she was coming from, he saw what she saw.

Will hadn't been well when they arrived and had been on and off since, yet he'd been acting uncharacteristically bold in terms of his and Hannes' sexual relationship, to the extent that it seemed like he was overcompensating. And finally, the fact that Will was looking at a woman when he hadn't ever before in the time he'd known Isa, as if he were just trying to spite Hannibal.

He could see why she'd think 'Hannes' had cheated, and then the assumption she'd make that 'Ethan' wasn't sure how to navigate through the betrayal in their relationship.

That wasn't the case though and Will shook his head,

"N-no, he hasn't been unfaithful…" he laughed humorlessly and rubbed his hand over his mouth, "…you're going to think I'm such…an idiot." he added.

Her eyes widened then and she leaned forward, sitting at the edge of her seat,

"Oh, **no** , Ethan, were you unfaithful to him?" she sounded a little angry now instead of sympathetic and it made Will's empathy perk up to the fact that she had probably been cheated on, but had never been the cheater.

He wondered briefly if Juan had ever cheated on her and then quickly dismissed the thought to set her straight,

"It's nothing like that, Isa, no one's cheated on anyone." he sighed, a false smile on his face and she relaxed somewhat as she leaned back in her seat again, glancing over at the corner leading to the villa to make sure no one was nearby or listening, before she looked at him again,

"So, what is it that's making you behave like an _el tonto_?" she raised an eyebrow.

Will swallowed tensely and moved, picking his chair up and bringing it closer, setting it down more or less next to her so he could lower his voice to a whisper,

"I found…I found an engagement ring."

Isa's eyes went wide for a second before she frowned, and then smiled and just generally looked confused and happy at the same time,

"You found it, where?" she leaned closer and then shook her head, "And why is _that_ making you act so stupid?" she sounded like she wanted to smack him upside his head.

The situation felt less dire for the moment at least, even though Will still had to deal with Hannibal, but he figured that he'd feel better after talking it out with someone who had a helpful and subjective perspective. And with a clearer head he was confident he'd be able to come up with some plausible excuse for his shitty behavior.

"I found it in our cellar, hidden behind a bottle of stupidly expensive wine." Will ran his hands up and down his thighs and then leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, his hands interlocked.

"It was hidden?" Isa crossed her legs and leaned her forearms across her middle, getting comfortable.

"Yes," Will nodded, the wind ruffling some of his curls as he glanced at her, "probably put there with the wine for…for whenever he plans to propose." he exhaled shakily and pursed his lips, feeling his stomach wind up in knots all over again.

He wanted it _so badly_.

Isa looked as if she didn't know what to ask next and after a moment she settled on a frown,

"Wait, wait, okay…" she tucked one side of her bob cut hair behind her ear, "…so you found the ring, but you weren't supposed to?" Will nodded unsteadily and she smiled, "Okay, so that is literally the _best_ news, Ethan," she brought a hand up to push his shoulder lightly, " **why** are you behaving so terribly when you know that Hannes wants to marry you?" she whispered the last part, giving him an incredulous glare.

Will had asked himself that question a hundred times in the past week, until finally he'd come up with a theory for what was making the old, insecure Will Graham show his miserable face.

He decided to voice his thoughts and see what Isa had to say,

"I think…I mean, I…feel like…" Will clenched his jaw and placed his face in his hands, pressing his fingers into his eyes as he spoke, "…I feel like I'm not good enough, Isa." he just went ahead and said it, "I don't know why someone like **him** would want to marry someone like **me**." he added very quietly, pushing his hands up into his hair and hanging his head with his eyes closed.

Will still wasn't _refined_ , would never completely be so. He didn't like _all_ the finer things Hannibal did, but even if that could be overlooked, the most important thing was that next to Hannibal, Will was a sloppy killer. Hannibal had helped him, honed him, taught him and guided him, but Will still wasn't up to standard, he doubted very much he could get away with murder like Hannibal did if he were on his own. He always became too involved in the kill to be able to think clearly so soon after, and it made the aftermath of covering his tracks impossible, hence why Hannibal took care of that.

And Will never wanted to be on his own doing it anyway, he'd chosen Hannibal, he loved Hannibal.

The man was Will's _everything_ , even after the facts; Hannibal having killed Katz, Hannibal having killed Abigail, Hannibal having had a hand in the death of Will's unborn son, Hannibal having gutted him once and then tried to eat his brains from his skull another time, Hannibal having sent Dolarhyde to kill Molly and Walter…after all that, Will still wanted him, still **needed** him.

Because somewhere in all the time they'd known one another, he'd fallen in love with Hannibal _the monster_ and Hannibal _the man_ and every day, for a long time without even realizing it, Will had already belonged to him.

Hannibal had known it all along, he'd just been waiting for Will to catch up.

And now…Will questioned whether or not he deserved to be with Hannibal.

And yes, he was aware of just how fucked up he was, but insanity was never black and white…and by Will's count, the last two betrayals between them had been his and so he had a lot to make up for.

And Will just didn't get it, that Hannibal would want him in the end, after how many times he'd let the man down.

But he knew that the lack of self-esteem and confidence he was feeling was _all_ from his prior self, that sad, foolish man who'd wasted years playing games with Hannibal when they could have been happy, and he was interfering now again. Will just needed to fucking _smother_ him.

He realized Isa wasn't saying anything so he looked at her, seeing that she was smiling at him.

He frowned,

"What?"

"That look…" she said quietly, smirking, "…you had it on your stupid face again." she tapped his cheek lightly with a manicured finger, almost touching his partially hidden scar, which as far as she knew was from a fishing accident.

They both sighed then with mild smiles, and Isa reached out to put her hand on Will's knee, and he didn't jump like he had earlier, because he wasn't supposed to be so pathetic anymore that a random touch would unsettle or startle him. That Will Graham was meant to be gone.

Dammit.

"Listen, Ethan, _dulce, niño tonto_ ," she squeezed his knee, "Hannes isn't the most expressive person, but you know what I think?" she smiled kindly, "Just me, not a psychiatrist or psychologist or therapist or whatever, just me, who has been married for years and has gone through my own problems and my children's problems and my friends problems," she paused and bumped her shoulder against Will's, "I think that it would not be possible for you to love any person as much as you love Hannes, if you didn't know that he loved you _just as much…_ or even more." she finished quietly.

And her words were wise…and **so** true.

Because Hannibal had once intended to upend his life, to reveal himself and to kill Jack for Will. Hannibal had made a place for Will in the world with him, he'd intended to give Will a daughter and keep them both safe. He'd saved Will's life one time more than he'd tried to take it, one time more that really counted in the end. Hannibal had created human topiary just to show Will his bleeding heart, to show Will the depth of his love…and then after all that when Will had still rejected him, Hannibal had turned himself in, had spent three years of his life locked away with no privacy and little dignity, **for Will**.

His chest hurt right then just thinking about it all as he stared into Isa's sincere face.

"He loves you." she said it like it was so simple…and who knew, maybe it was.

Maybe for all of the complicated and twisted shit they'd been through, their relationship was just that contrastingly simple. Will loved Hannibal, in every way and Hannibal loved Will, in whatever way he could.

"Yeah…y-yeah…" he laughed breathily, rubbing his fingers into his eyes again and then sighing before talking into his hands, "…you are…you are so right, Isa, that…I think, you just…" he smiled and turned in his seat to face her more directly, "… _thank you_ , for uncomplicating this entire thing for me." because essentially that's what she had done.

Will was so used to having to overthink everything, knowing that Hannibal's mind was so complex with several trains of uninterrupted, simultaneous thought all seamlessly happening, a constant, always keeping Will on his toes, making Will overanalyze everything said or done.

But here Isa had just summarized it, cut away the excess fat, trimmed all the weeds, broken it right down.

She was smiling back at him,

"Sometimes Ethan, simplicity is the hardest thing to achieve, but when you do…" she reached up and touched his chin lightly, "…then you can smile, just like you are now, _guapo y feliz_."

Will continued to smile at her and when they leaned in for a hug it came more naturally than Will ever remembered it being for him to just hug someone. But then, in his previous life, he'd been so constantly on his guard that being touched had always made him uncomfortable.

Except for when Hannibal had done it, however lightly and clinically, Will hadn't ever felt the need to pull away.

That was significant somehow to their history, probably a contributing factor to everything somehow.

But Will chose not to overthink it, because he didn't have to.

When the hug ended, Will took Isa's hands and squeezed them lightly in his own,

" _Gracias_ , Isa." he mumbled.

She squeezed his hands too and then bounced in her seat once,

"Ethan, you're going to get engaged soon." she reminded him in a whisper and all Will could do was grin,

"Yes, I am." he agreed, looking more forward to it now than he had been all week.

He stood up then,

"I have to go and talk to Hannes, thank you again, Isa."  
"Yes, yes, you're welcome, go now…" she shooed him away with a smile and Will returned it before he walked back to the villa to go and find Hannibal.


	6. Olly Olly Oxen Free

AN: THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN EDITED TO EXCLUDE NC 17 CONTENT, VISIT AO3 FOR THE FULL CHAPTER

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"My heart is lost; the beasts have eaten it."  
― Charles Baudelaire

* * *

 _Saturday – 17 Sep 2022 – 7.58 PM_

Hannibal was in their designated room, sitting in the fauteuil couch by the large windows with a glass of wine in one hand and his tablet in the other. He was reading something, judging by the way his eyes moved across the screen and he was still dressed in his clothes from earlier, a teal button down shirt, black chinos and black leather loafers, reclining in the chair with one leg crossed over the other.

He looked up when Will walked into the room and held his gaze for a moment before he returned to his reading.

Will swallowed with a soft click and glanced to the windows briefly.

The tension in the room was tangible even without using his empathy to sense it. Hannibal was **not** happy.

Turning around, Will locked the bedroom door. He considered turning on the overhead light, but the lamp in the corner gave the room enough light to be comfortable, so he decided against it. He took a breath before he turned around again and walked toward Hannibal, past the bed until he was able to sit on the side of it nearest to where the older man was, more or less across from him.

"Can we talk?" he asked in an uncertain tone, frowning lightly.

Hannibal, as well-mannered as ever, regarded Will with his full attention as he closed the cover of his tablet and placed it long ways in the side of the sofa, prompting Will to go on with a raised eyebrow before he took a sip of his wine.

Will inhaled deeply and then exhaled the same, forcing himself not to fidget because that was something the old Will had used to do. He sat up straighter and placed his hands on the tops of his thighs, looking directly at Hannibal, right in the eye, no avoidance would be acceptable right then,

"I've been feeling…" he spoke evenly and calm, pausing to search his mind for a word that would best describe his recent state of mind, and he took another short breath before he settled on, "…labile."

Hannibal was already mostly in his psychiatrist mien, face unreadable just like it used to be when they'd first been having 'conversations', and so easily, they slipped back into their doctor and patient roles,

"Like the Will Graham of old." Hannibal said, his voice quiet on the name and his tone flat, the words spoken as if it had been so glaringly obvious that Will was regressing, and it probably had been to him if even Isa had been able to see something was wrong.

Despite his best efforts not to, Will's face twitched, his mouth unsettled between a smile and a frown as his stomach knotted up again,

"Exactly, actually." he admitted with risen eyebrows.

Hannibal lowered his gaze to his wine as he took another sip and then he licked his lips and looked at Will again,

"Your behavior this past week, up to and including your social candidness on our sex life and your apparent interest in Adoncia, are indicators of something else that's bothering you." he stated surely.

It was not a question and Will nodded, the was no point in stepping around the issue,

"Yes." he answered plainly, biting lightly at the inside of his lower lip.

Hannibal stared at him,

"And are you ready to tell me what it is, or are we going to continue to have this unpleasant miscommunication?" he enquired, blinking placidly.

Here's where Will had to tell the most truth he could, without mentioning that he'd found the engagement ring.

"It's laughable." Will muttered.

"I'm not laughing." Hannibal said with a façade of calm. He really wasn't even vaguely amused though.

Will thought he knew why,

"I embarrassed you," he acknowledged, "what Eurico said about me looking at his wife-…"

Hannibal cut him off with a curt look and tilt of his head,

"You've mistaken my contempt for uncivilized spectacles of domestic discord, for embarrassment." he said with considerable ennui, the tell of his irritation only visible to Will because he knew every nuance of Hannibal's micro-expressions, "I expect that the only one who will suffer embarrassment come morning, is the young pie-eyed Adoncia." he finished dryly.

Will's twitching mouth settled on a weak smile, because of course Hannibal would despise domestic spats, even when he and Will argued, the man _never_ raised his voice. But it figured, if he had a steady heart rate when removing organs from living, screaming victims, then why would he lose his cool when arguing?

"Well, I apologize all the same." Will said quietly.

Hannibal looked unimpressed,

"There's no need for apologies." he said stiffly, "I would only ask that in future, should you choose to…" he paused and swirled what was left of his wine, "…admire any women, perhaps you might exercise some discretion."

Will's stomach flipped over unpleasantly and he shook his head, his curls shifting across his forehead,

"Hanni-H-hannes," he quickly caught himself, just in case the walls were particularly thin, "I don't…admire women, I haven't in _years_." he admitted. After Isa had pointed it out to him it felt more weighted, more pertinent in this matter because it was entirely true, "I haven't looked at a woman in a sexual way…" he huffed out some wavy laughter, "…pretty much since Molly." Hannibal looked like he was going to say something but Will spoke first, "And even," he gestured to the door, "her, I, I looked at her, I saw what she had so openly put on display and I acknowledge that I did that, but I didn't _admire_ her, there wasn't and has not been a single sexual thought toward her." he said honestly in a harsh whisper, flexing his fingers as he clasped his hands together.

Hannibal blinked slowly, consistently apathetic,

"Be that as it may, you are still discussing something quite divagated from the point." he said dully.

Will sighed and unclasped his hands, rubbing at his face briefly, searching his mind for ways to explain it,

"Do you…do you remember," stupid question, Hannibal always remembered, "...after Randal, sitting in your dining room…?" Hannibal raised his chin when Will looked at him, and then his lips parted slightly and he raised an eyebrow,

"Yes."

" **That**." Will breathed, hoping it explained something of what had been going on with him.

There was a beat of silence as Hannibal recalled their conversation from that night and then his tongue slipped out to wet the seam of his lips,

"You went inside?"

Will nodded tensely, because that was a good way to describe how he'd been second guessing himself this past week, going inside his head where he suffered his own judgments. But when Hannibal inhaled long and tight and Will saw the first signs of actual consternation in the older man, he realized he needed to clarify,

"But not about," he wet his lips too, frowning, "not about who I am with you," he treaded carefully, because Hannibal was listening closely and was already getting the wrong idea, "but rather, who I am… **to** you." he hoped that was clear enough. Because they couldn't go speaking candidly here, or Will would have said, ' _I know I'm a killer, I just don't know why I'm a killer worthy of your interests and affection_.'

Hannibal did understand what he was trying to say at least, Will saw it in his face, his gaze sharpening slightly with understanding, and after he'd finished what was left of his wine, he uncrossed his long legs and stood up,

"When I asked you before, if you needed me to say it," he paused, looking down at Will, "you said that you didn't." he pointed out and then walked to the TV stand and set the glass down there.

Will turned to watch him, shaking his head,

"And I don't, I'm not…I'm not questioning whether you feel it," Hannibal turned and looked at him again and Will stood up as well, turning to face Hannibal properly, "I'm questioning whether I deserve it." he swallowed lightly.

And in that moment, for a split second, Will saw something in Hannibal that he hadn't seen since they'd been together after killing Dolarhyde…but had perhaps always sensed was there, even just subconsciously.

He saw **doubt**.

' _So he questions himself about me too?_ ' Will realized and while such a revelation should have rattled Will, it did quite the opposite. Because if Hannibal was still holding him to a standard, if there were still trials to be completed, trust to be hard won, then Will knew there would come a day when Hannibal's doubt –and by extension his own –would dissolve to nothing.

Will felt oddly relieved and his mouth worked a few times, breaths slipping out, before he settled on his next words with slightly raised eyebrows,

"I'm going to ask you something." he posed and Hannibal just stared at him, "And I'd like you to be completely honest when you answer." Will took steps toward him and the older man remained quiet until Will was standing just inside his personal space, less than a foot from him.

Hannibal looked over Will's face before meeting his eyes again,

"Certainly." he acquiesced.

Will was also looking over his face, battling against the desire to just kiss Hannibal before he said what needed to be said. But a kiss wouldn't resolve anything, it'd only distract, so Will took a quick breath and steadied his voice as much as possible,

"Would you…" he stopped himself, frowning and shaking his head, "…no, no rather, _could_ you, still kill me?"

Hannibal eyes darkened slightly at the question and Will trusted that he wouldn't try to answer in a way he thought Will wanted him to, no, he wouldn't lie, or even omit, not anymore.

Will was close enough that his whispered words had carried just between them, and Hannibal responded the same way after a thoughtful minute, his face and voice still not giving anything of his thoughts away,

"Yes." he said truthfully.

Again, Will figured he should have felt hurt by that, since he himself didn't think he could kill Hannibal anymore, but instead of hurt, he felt like he'd just received an incentive, been steadied back onto a path he had not yet travelled to its end.

Will nodded once unevenly, thinking that was as good and as clear as it could get between them right then. Hannibal still didn't entirely trust him, so Will was still not completely out of the range of his wrath should Will hurt him again in any way.

He took a breath to say that he understood, but Hannibal interrupted the silence first with a soft sigh as he placed his hand on Will's cheek, his warm palm cradling the line of Will's jaw and tilting Will's head so they were making eye contact again. Hannibal swallowed lightly,

"However, the reasons why I might choose to do so now have much, much higher stakes for me and are far more complicated than they once were." he explained quietly, sincerely.

Will couldn't help smiling, feeling even more relief in hearing those words, translating in his mind as _'it'd be much more difficult for me to kill you now, than it would have been before'_.

And that was fine, in fact, it was better because,

"So there are still expectations," he made a soft laughing sound before he whispered, "hoops, Hannibal, you still have hoops that you need me to jump through." and there was no bitterness in his tone as he said it, Hannibal recognized that as he watched Will curiously.

The idea didn't offend Will because it made sense to him. He'd been making every effort to meet Hannibal's expectations after that impromptu suicide dive off the bluff and he'd known all along he had to prove to Hannibal that he wanted to be with him following that incident. So to learn now that there were still obstacles left was reassuring more than anything else, because it meant that the engagement ring he'd found was sort of a check point. By Hannibal purchasing it, it meant Will was one step closer to the end of the game, and when Hannibal did finally propose, Will would have earned that major commitment.

Also, a marriage proposal was a pretty big step, so it likely meant there were only a few things left for Will to do before Hannibal no longer doubted him. Before there were no more concerns of knives held behind one another's backs ready to be stabbed into vulnerable places.

It was a good thing and Will immediately felt his confidence renewed as his real self, his proper, dark, free self, easily eclipsed the Will Graham of old and he grinned sharply. The predator in Hannibal responded, the older man's gaze becoming devilish and _warm_ when he noticed the familiar change in Will, who brought his hands up and slid them over Hannibal's shoulders until his arms were encircling his neck,

"I'll make those jumps, Hannibal." he whispered close, their lips just shy of touching, his tone lightly warning, "And when it's over, when I'm done, the games will **end** and I'll be expecting vindication as my reward." it was not a question and not a request.

Hannibal smiled slowly, a rare, full grin showing his teeth, and it made him look as gorgeous as it did dangerous,

"I will reward you with far more than just that, every day for the rest of your life, Will…" he whispered back and Will reveled in those words, "…I might even be inclined to liken what awaits you, as being worship." and Will's breath stuck when he heard that.

He kissed Hannibal then, their mouths parting against one another's immediately and for several deep kisses as Will breathed into Hannibal's mouth between kisses, utterances of _yes, anything, everything, I'll do it_.

As Hannibal's sinewy hands, large and with wide spread fingers, grabbed Will's waist, he lifted Will's weight just about off the ground and pushed him backward so he landed on the bed with a bounce. Will found himself imagining with a grin, as he settled back on his elbows and parted his legs where they hung off the foot of the bed, that when the time came, Hannibal would get down onto one knee to propose to him, because Will would have earned having Hannibal Lecter –Il Mostro, The Chesapeake Ripper, Hannibal the Cannibal- get down onto his knees for him.

Hannibal brought one knee up onto the bed between Will's legs and leaned over him, pushing Will's button-down shirt up and over his head. And while Will was pulling the shirt the rest of the way off his arms, Hannibal began kissing and nipping at the smooth skin of his chest, his hands going to the fastenings of Will's pants and roughly pulling them open. When Hannibal curled his fingers into the waist hem of the pants, he leaned down and bit sorely at the smooth dip of Will's stomach, just below his navel, Will inhaling sharply at the stinging sensation of it as Hannibal started yanking the pants down his legs. Will wasn't unused to being bitten, but it still hurt when it happened.

The second Hannibal had yanked Will's shoes off, he proceeded to remove Will's pants and underwear completely, Will raising his legs to accommodate the action. Hannibal then stood up at the foot of the bed, starting to unbutton his own shirt and Will quickly sat up and started undoing Hannibal's pants.

Once the older man's shirt was off and his pants dropped to his ankles, Will hitched his fingers into the waistband of Hannibal's black briefs...

* * *

 **SCENE REMOVED, PLEASE VISIT AO3 FOR FULL CHAPTER**

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...Hannibal went on to press kisses to his lips and his jaw and his neck and once Will's breathing regulated and his coherence returned, he became fully aware of how sore he _actually_ was.

He smiled around a grimace and brought his hands up to slide his fingers through Hannibal's smooth hair as the older man lavished the damp column of his neck with attention of kisses and suckles,

"I don't…think we can do this again for a few days…" Will continued to slide his hands absently through Hannibal's hair as the older man sucked a mark into his neck, Hannibal's other hand coming up to join his first in Will's messy hair.

"You're hurt?" Hannibal asked on a quiet exhale, his breath ghosting over the mark he'd made and catching on the cooling sweat on Will's neck. Will swallowed lightly, wet his dry, red lips, and he slid his thighs against the sides of Hannibal's waist as he answered back in a hushed, mumbled tone,

"No, m'sore though…probably gonna' hurt to go to the bathroom for a day or two." he admitted with an idle sniff and another grimace, feeling how gradually the soreness and ache were getting worse. He wasn't complaining though, just letting Hannibal know his ass was off limits for a while.

A courtesy, really.

Hannibal was smiling softly,

"I'll fetch you ibuprofen and some water," he went on quietly, kissing Will once softly and then moving away to get off the bed, "take a warm shower in the meantime and I'll change the sheets for us." he instructed as he stood up at the foot of the bed and retrieved his underwear from the floor.

Will wasn't comfortable per say, because he was so sore, but just lying there after thoroughly satisfying sex was still a great feeling. And Hannibal _doting_ on him was always a pleasant experience. Still, Will nodded his assent, watching as Hannibal redressed –even though he was probably loathe to- pulling his pants and shirt over his less than clean and sweat sticky skin.

"Thank you…" Will said quietly, smiling at Hannibal sincerely and immediately, the barely visible crease of tension between the older man's eyebrows smoothed out. He touched Will's socked ankle lightly with his fingers, holding them there for a moment, an intimate touch all on its own, before he slid his hand away over Will's foot in a soft caress and then walked around the bed toward the door, unlocking it and leaving the room.

Will let his eyes fall closed then as his smile stretched across his face, emotions rising rapidly from his chest to his throat and forming a lump there. They were all good emotions, the sort that came from being really happy.

And even after so long of being happy, it still surprised Will when something happened to remind him that he was no longer a lonely, unstable, miserable fuck.

He would like to have laid there in the significant afterglow for much longer, but the doctor had given him an order, so Will pushed himself up to sit slowly –grimacing and wincing- and slid off the bed carefully before he went to take a shower.

* * *

 _Sunday – 18 Sep 2022 – 11.21 AM_

The following morning, after waking up to breakfast in bed and more than one good morning kiss, Will cleaned up and dressed in fresh clothes and made his way downstairs. Isa was sitting in the lounge area, drinking a long island iced tea and listening to a Spanish music cd and she smiled broadly when she saw him.

Will smiled at her and then glanced around, seeing Hannibal, Juan, Adoncia and Eurico all sitting outside on the patio and talking. He frowned as he approached Isa,

"Business?" he enquired as he sat down next to her, making sure he did so gingerly but not obviously, and he managed to keep the wince of pain off his face once he was seated, thanking the sofa gods that the couches in the villa were plush and soft.

She half rolled her eyes as she glanced at the patio and then waved her hand lightly as if to swat away a fly,

" _After_ the apologies, I think so." she answered in a half whisper, bringing her one leg up onto the couch and turning more to face Will, "Adoncia and Eurico both apologized to Hannes first thing this morning," she brought the straw of her drink to her lips but didn't sip, "she seemed more sincere than her husband did, but they were both feeling _muy avergonzado_." she sounded amused.

Will raised his eyebrows and rubbed a hand over his beard, which needed a trim, and then down to the side of his neck as he shook his head and huffed out a laugh,

"Such a stupid thing, and yet I feel partly responsible." he mumbled.

Isa clucked her tongue and sipped her iced tea and after a beat of silence, Will glanced at her to find she was grinning around her straw, looking at him.

"What?" he frowned.

"You and Hannes obviously made up." she decided smugly.

Will felt his ears get a little warm and he placed his hands on the tops of his thighs as he looked at her,

"Yes, we did…thank you again for last night," because she'd helped, "but why are you smiling like that?" he started to feel self-conscious. Hannibal had assured him before sleeping the night before that no one had heard them, apparently they'd managed to be sufficiently quiet. They hadn't had to but it suited their own needs for privacy and discretion to have been.

She brought her hand up and poked the side of his neck with her finger, her long nail pressing lightly into his skin,

" _Mordisco amoroso_." she pointed out and then touched another spot lower down on his neck, "And another one."

Will remembered then, the three love bites on his neck and he lightly pushed her hand away, face officially turning red as he huffed awkwardly,

"Alright, yes, I…we did…" his mouth betrayed his frown though, twitching at the corners and curving into a smile, "…we're good, we're…better than good. This entire misunderstanding was just that, a misunderstanding." he sighed, glancing outside again and then looking at Isa as he pushed himself to stand up, "Did Juan tell you if Hannes has decided to do business with them?" he asked as he walked over to the bar, "I forgot to ask him." he admitted as he crouched down –ouch- and took a bottle of water out of the small bar fridge.

Will also realized then that he still hadn't gotten his answer from Hannibal about Bedelia's body.

Isa shrugged facially as she fiddled with her straw,

"Juan told me that Hannes hasn't decided yet." and then she waved her hand lightly, "But that is not our concern, Ethan, it's so boring to talk about work, work, work."

Will chose to stand behind the bar instead of sitting again as he opened the water and took a sip,  
"What should we talk about then?" and he was sorry he asked before he'd even finished his sentence.

Isa glanced outside and then stood up, coming over to stand across from him,

"Tell me what the ring looked like." she whispered, smiling with pursed lips.

Will gave her an uncertain smile, not sure he should be talking about it anymore than he already had. But after a brief deliberation, he lowered his voice as well and glanced at the patio to make sure Hannibal was still out of ear shot,

"I feel like I shouldn't talk about it, I'm not even supposed to know about it, remember?"

Isa sighed but surprisingly relented, mostly anyway,

"Okay, okay, but was it at least a nice ring, tasteful?" she raised an eyebrow and sipped her drink.

Will remembered it clearly, expensive and stylish but also simple. Tasteful was an understatement.

"Yes, it was… **very** nice…platinum, sophisticated, brilliant cut diamonds…" he chewed the inside of his lip as Isa fought to contain a swoon, and then he guiltily mumbled, "…I tried it on."

Isa looked shocked and scolding and then intrigued and excited,

"Ethan, how could you?" she whispered, but then she leaned closer, "Did it fit?"

Will leaned his hip against the bar and raised his eyebrows, speaking against the mouth of the water bottle,

"Perfectly." he said with a smirk.

She looked like she wanted to woot, but she mastered it and instead just beamed at Will,  
"I am so happy for you, Ethan." she said sincerely and he smiled at her, excited himself.

In many ways it was surreal just how badly he wanted to be married to Hannibal, and Will was in no way blind to how it reflected on him as the 'Will Graham of old'. The heterosexual introvert who had wanted to sleep with Alana Bloom quite desperately at one point, and had been unknowingly used by Margot Verger as a sperm donor just because he'd so badly wanted to get laid. Also, he'd been pushed off a moving train because he'd been stupid enough to let Chiyoh kiss him. And then there'd been Molly, who'd been _nothing_ like the dark, serious, intellectual and complicated women he'd always usually been attracted to and he'd attempted to live a simple, mundane life and _raise a child_ with her. What a joke…

Will's life had been fucked up all along, his relationships had never been healthy either, never in all his life.

And yet there he was presently, in what could easily be classified as one of the most fucked up relationships in the history of the world…and he was doing great. He was happy and healthy and he felt sane, despite the whole thing of being a cannibalistic killer and being in love with a cannibalistic serial killer, Will was balanced and sure of himself. He was living well, treated well, would be engaged soon, he had friends who didn't look at him like some kind of freak –even if only because they were clueless of his nature- but still, he was in a better place in his life than he'd ever been.

The people who'd tried to control him, exploit him, use him, whose opinions and ideas of reality and right and wrong had all contradicted what they'd wanted from him, they were all behind him.

And even Will's own former ideas of what sex was and should be like and with whom he should be having it had evolved drastically. His sex life with Hannibal was amazing, once he'd gotten past the first unsettling notions, implications and confrontations of giving to and taking pleasure from another man's dick, he'd been all engines go.

And Hannibal…Hannibal was something else…and then some.

For all of the evil that he was, there was a man beneath the person suit, a man who **was** actually Hannibal Lecter. Still a killer and still a cannibal, but he was more than that too, substantial and real and…honestly infatuating, worth loving, worth needing, worth respecting. So he ate and killed people here and there, turned a few new psychopaths out on the world every once in a while…so what? It kept things interesting.

And true, Will felt closer to him because of his own homicidal proclivities, because no one had ever really been able to love Will, no one had ever really seen him and if they had, they would never have accepted him for what he was, as Hannibal did. But that was part of what love was about in Will's eyes, unconditional acceptance. His former relationships had been just as shrouded in lies and facades as Hannibal's had, even if they weren't pre-meditated and overly deliberate lies based on a predilection and penchant for murder as Hannibal's had been.

But yes, he accepted the worst in Hannibal because they were just alike in the end.

Isa was talking about some new restaurant she wanted to go to back in Alicante and Will was listening even though his thoughts were far away, but their conversation was interrupted when a cell phone started ringing.

Will recognized the standard Xperia phone tune as being Hannibal's and he looked to the patio, watching as Hannibal excused himself from the conversation at the table and then stood up and walked across the balcony, answering his phone just as he went out of Will's range of sight.

Will had to wonder who it was, but he'd just wait until he had a chance to ask.

"…maybe next week," Isa finished and looked at him again from where she'd also glanced to the patio, "and you should come too, Ethan."

Will was pretty much able to surmise that she'd invited him to go with her to the restaurant and he nodded,

"Yeah, I, uh, that should be fine," he glanced back to the patio when he saw Hannibal walk back to the table, and Will noticed he looked concerned, _openly_ , which meant he wasacting, "uh…" Will frowned then and Isa followed his gaze back to Hannibal, who was saying something to Juan, Adoncia and Eurico.

Will stood up straight and placed the water bottle on the bar top when Hannibal made his way inside the villa and the other three all got up from their seats and followed. Isa stood up straight too, frowning as well because Hannibal looked worried as he came inside, looking as though he was going to head straight to the stairs before he spotted Will and slowed his walking, coming to a stop.

His concerned expression was hammed up, Will watched him swallow tensely and clutch his phone tightly in his hand, feigning distress like a pro,

"I was coming to talk to you."

And of course Will played right along,

"What's wrong?" he made sure to sound appropriately worried as everyone came to stand in the lounge area.

Hannibal glanced at everyone and then settled his eyes on Will again,

"I've just received news that my sister, Heleen, has been in a car accident." he said somberly.

And when Will's eyes widened it wasn't faked, because Heleen was the name they'd agreed on to refer to Chiyoh as and Chiyoh was only ever in contact with Hannibal when something serious came up.

Will played into it convincingly,

"Christ, Hannes, is she okay?" it was the standard thing to ask, even if the question meant nothing between them besides being a suitable act of worry. Will approached Hannibal and reached out to him, holding his upper arms as Hannibal masterfully managed a sheen of wetness in his eyes,

"She's critical," he took a breath, reaching his hand out to touch Will's side lightly, "we need to leave immediately." he added and Will nodded, because if they had to go they had to go.

"I'll book us on the next flight to Estonia." Will offered, because everyone thought that that was where Hannes was from and so it made sense to pretend his sister was from there. But Hannibal shook his head,

"No, home first, we may be in Estonia for a while, we need to pack and see to the dogs." his eyes locked with Will's, who felt his stomach bottom out and he swallowed queasily, sensing that whatever was wrong was serious.

He nodded again, a little paler in complexion as he quickly walked away, he heard Hannibal apologize to everyone who gave their sympathies and well wishes for 'Heleen' to recover, but he didn't look back as he left for the bedroom to pack.

Will was worried now, because he could only think of one thing that could be so wrong it would require them to see to the dogs and pack for a long away trip…and that was if they'd been made somehow. Chiyoh, wherever the hell she was and however the hell she did what she did and knew what she knew, had long ago told Hannibal that she would let him know if she found out that the FBI or any other police force were on to them, it was part of what she did, always looking out for Hannibal.

Will hadn't even seen her since they all parted ways years ago, a few weeks after she'd been there to help them pick up the pieces of the mess Will had made by throwing himself and Hannibal off a cliff. He swore he could still feel the steel barrel of the gun she'd put between his teeth when he'd still been bleeding out of his face and shoulder. Hannibal had been all cleaned up, stitched together and asleep in some other room of Chiyoh's safe house, and she'd threatened Will with complete sincerity, that if he made an attempt on Hannibal's life ever again, she'd give him a smile of her own…and he wouldn't survive it.

And coming from the woman who'd pushed him off a moving train and then shot him with an honest to god sniper rifle not very long after that, from a roof top and everything, Will took her **very** seriously. And if she was calling and Hannibal was in a hurry, something was urgent.

Will didn't ask Hannibal anything about it when he came into the room to help pack their things a few minutes later, and he wouldn't, not on the drive to the airport, not on the plane, not anywhere before they'd set foot in their house.

* * *

 _Sunday – 18 Sep 2022 – 12.57 PM_

They pulled into the garage of their home about an hour after noon that same day, Hannibal parking his Bentley off in his usual side of the double garage, to the side of which was Will's car, parked as it had been when he'd last left it there Thursday afternoon.

Hannibal switched the ignition off as the garage door closed behind them and he unclipped his seatbelt. Every action he made was calm, the opening of his door and how he got out of the car at his leisure, graceful and without urgency. Will frowned, but did the same, removing his seatbelt calmly before getting out, proceeding to help Hannibal with their luggage and to remove anything else that needed to come out of the car.

They exited through the side door of the garage, which led them up the side stairs of the yard to where the kitchen sliding doors were. And after unlocking them and deactivating the alarm, they walked inside the house and Will followed Hannibal's lead, setting their bags down on the kitchen floor.

Hannibal walked around the kitchen island counter and set his car keys and sunglasses down on the counter top before he stopped at a cupboard and took out two wine glasses. Will frowned as he watched, stepping forward until he was around the island as well and he set his sunglasses down next to Hannibal's as the older man set the wine glasses down and then walked to the fridge.

The humming of the appliance filled the silence as Hannibal opened one side of the two doors and while Will was itching to ask what was going on, he chose to wait, going over the various scenarios in his head of what the call could have been about, of why Hannibal seemed to have no urgency anymore about whatever Chiyoh had told him.

He briefly entertained the idea that Hannibal had lied purely so they could leave the retreat sooner, but something about that idea didn't fit the situation either. So Will waited as Hannibal uncorked the bottle and then poured the chilled wine, being generous about it and filling the glasses almost halfway before he set the bottle aside and lifted the glasses.

Will accepted the glass Hannibal handed him and sipped from it, just as Hannibal did. He didn't seem to be in a very good mood from what Will could gauge, he actually seemed quite tense. Hannibal took another sip of his wine and slowly licked his lips and Will just watched him thoughtfully, trying to figure out what the fuck was happening.

When Hannibal set his wine glass down, Will was going to do the same, but he was distracted from it by Hannibal stepping closer, taking Will's face in his hands and kissing him. Will inhaled through his nose and moaned softly into Hannibal's mouth when it opened against his own and the older man kissed him deeply.

And Will kissed back, always, he'd always kiss back.

It was less than a minute of Hannibal tonguing deep into Will's pliant mouth but by the time Hannibal drew back Will's lips were sufficiently reddened and damp with their shared saliva, his breathing was just slightly escalated and he couldn't keep his concern quiet anymore,

"What's going on, Hannibal?" he felt trepidation rising in his chest and he didn't want to feel that.

Hannibal looked over his face as he held it in his warm hands and without answering, he kissed Will again, except that time it was with soft catches of his lips against Wills, light traces of his tongue, slow exhales of his breath and careful presses of their mouths at the end of each tender contact.

Will felt twice as shaken when Hannibal drew back from those sweet kisses, and then he felt ten times more anxious when Hannibal stepped back and picked up his wine again, taking a hefty drink from it and then parting his lips and exhaling.

He looked Will in the eyes abruptly then, unblinking for a few seconds before he said evenly,

"Chiyoh has found Alana."

Will blinked…and then blinked again a few times as that information sunk in.

Alana Verger…Margot Verger, Morgan Verger.

All people living on borrowed time with the promise of Hannibal's wrath, was he to ever find them.

And so he had now, via his proxy, via his chosen mongoose that hid under the house for when the snakes slithered by. Chiyoh had been searching for three years…and now…

Will exhaled slowly, feeling a knot of tension wind itself up in his stomach and he was about to drain the wine from his glass…when he noticed that Hannibal had already finished his and was pouring more for himself.

That gave Will pause.

And as he watched Hannibal bring the refilled glass to his lips without glancing at Will, taking another mouthful of the rich wine, it occurred to the younger man then…that Hannibal was genuinely worried about something.

Will didn't understand what, not immediately, he knew that Hannibal never had second thoughts about promises and he knew that Hannibal didn't get nervous about future kills, and of course, he knew Hannibal had been looking forward to killing Alana since before he'd been in the BSHCI. So Will had to break it down in his head, thoroughly pick it apart and consider what could possibly set Hannibal on edge…

…and after a minute of silent thought, only one thing came to mind.

Will took in a shaky breath when he realized that Hannibal was worried…because of him.

Although whether it was because he was worried that Alana was a deal breaker for Will –since they had never discussed Will's feelings of her preordained and fated murder- or because he wasn't sure he could choose to let her live if that's what Will wanted, he had no idea.

What was clear though, was that Hannibal was giving off the vibe that he saw whatever outcome as not ending well. Maybe he thought Will would leave him if he killed Alana? That Will would try to warn Alana somehow, or turn on him in the moment? Or maybe that Will would let it happen and then resent him afterward? Whatever it was, Hannibal looked agitated about it.

Will took a moment then, to seriously turn his observances inward, he took a moment to consider the thought of Hannibal killing Alana and her wife and son. He let it settle in his brain, in the dark expanse and the few places where the light still touched in his mind and he rolled his tongue in his mouth, thought of what their organs, their limbs, might taste like when prepared in Hannibal's kitchen and with his expertise.

And then Will slowly closed his eyes and tried to picture how Hannibal would kill them…

He knew Hannibal would make Alana suffer, there'd be pain and humiliation and anguish and lots of blood. Margot would likely not suffer as much, if at all. Will wasn't even sure whether or not Hannibal would eat her, would even cut into her or just end her life quickly, because Hannibal had almost seemed vaguely fond of Margot at one point and she hadn't ever explicitly wronged him. Then there was Morgan Verger, the little boy…

…and that's where Will came up short of the thrill and the anticipation, just that one thing.

Will opened his eyes and glanced at his wine glass before he set it on the counter, the soft tink of the glass against marble bringing Hannibal's attention to it,

"Hannibal," Will said, to make the man look at him instead and when he did, when they were making earnest eye contact and Hannibal would hear and _see_ him, only then did Will say, " **not** the Verger boy." in a tone that was very honest of his feelings, asking as well as telling.

The pupils of Hannibal's eyes, which had been constricted with the brightness of the sunlit kitchen, blew out to almost completely black at Will's words, but not in disappointment or anger or resentment…no, it was a predatory reaction, because he was _pleased_ , he was _thrilled_ , he was _**hungry**_.

Hannibal's tension eased and his mouth curved into a dangerous and satisfied smile,

"Not the Verger boy, then." he easily agreed, simple as that.

And Will felt relieved, because it was the only thing about the idea that had unsettled him.

Will would not be able to accept killing the child, but Alana…Alana had long ago put the first nails in hers and Margot's coffins, they'd had it coming all this time, not unlike Bedelia and Freddy.

You play, you pay. And they had both played.

They had always been on the menu.

Will smirked at Hannibal, who looked truly pleased, and he wet his lips and tasted wine in the mixture of their saliva clinging there. He stepped forward then and placed his hands on Hannibal's stomach, pushing and turning the older man so that his lower back was pressed against the high counter before Will leaned against him, the lengths of their bodies flush, and kissed him.

They spent a good long while like that, making out in the kitchen, no one to interrupt or interfere as they lavished one another's mouths with attention, their hands occasionally moving over one another's clothes in easy, pleasant exploration, not working up to anything and rather just enjoying the taste and feel of one another.

The kiss ended with a mutual parting slide of their mouths, Hannibal's lips to Will's jaw and then his neck and Will's lips stretching into a grin as he tilted his head to bare his throat to the older man's kisses.

Will couldn't help feeling good about this particular hoop he'd just jumped through.

Once Alana and Margot were dead and served for dinner, Will guessed he'd probably have completed several tests laid out for him by Hannibal through the procession. And he wanted his vindication, his reward and more importantly he wanted his engagement and his marriage and his worship.

He wanted Hannibal's explicit trust for always.

When Hannibal's mouth returned to his they were both smiling and Will parted his lips for Hannibal's next few licking kisses, speaking in between the joining of their mouths,

"So…where…are they?"

After another languid, wide kiss to Will's mouth, Hannibal drew back with a soft smacking sound and he chuckled darkly. Looking into Will's half-lidded blue-green eyes, his voice was a deep rumble when he responded,

"Florence."

Will actually laughed at that, the high pitched wheezing sound coming on almost involuntarily as he pressed his forehead to Hannibal's shoulder. The sheer simplicity of it was highly amusing.

 _Of course_ she'd hide in Florence, after everything, Hannibal wouldn't be able to set foot in Italy, but Florence especially, without someone recognizing him.

Hannibal was grinning, equally amused, when Will managed to rein in his laughter and they looked at one another again, faces inches apart, breaths mingling and their smiles settling with their lips nearly touching.

And despite the situation, despite the danger of Alana being in Florence where Hannibal should not risk going, Will was not worried, not even in the least.

He only had one question left to ask,

"When do we leave?"

* * *

 _And that concludes the end of the first part._  
 _Baudelaire in Braille: Drawn & Quartered, will be darker (I couldn't help myself, fluff is not my favored genre). _  
_It will have murder, sex, mind games, cruelty, a macabre engagement, a lot more kissing and a few surprises for Will, because Hannibal loves him and has a unique way of showing it..._


End file.
